



By 



Leitch 



Stoi\ies 

/A^SSIONARY 




\American Tract SooETr. 

ISO NASSAU STfteCT. 

New York. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf .....U.l5 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




SEVEN YEARS IN CEYLON. 




A HINDU WOMAN 



in (Benton 

stories of Mission 



MARY AND MARGARET W. LEITCH 




OUR TWO DEAR BROTHERS, 

WHO, WITH UNFAILING KINDNESS, 

HAVE CHEERED AND SUSTAINED US IN ALL WK HAVE ATTEMPTED TO DO 

FOR THE FOREIGN FIELD, 

Me affectionately ^e^icate tbis booft. 



.'^ 
u»^ 



COPYRIGHT, l8go. 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



Xnfro6ucfion 





IND friends have often asked us 
why, at the many meetings 

which we have addressed in behalf of the work of the 
Jaffna College in Ceylon, and the General Medical 
Mission about to be inaugurated in connection with 
it, we have not told more about the specific work in 
which we ourselves were engaged during the seven 
years which we spent in Ceylon as missionaries. 

Our reply has been that, as we came to Great 
Britain with the special object of securing ;£■ 30,000 for 
this College and Medical Mission, the time at our 
meetinss has usually been consumed in presenting 
the claims of these special causes. 

But while this was so, we have often wished that 
we had a compilation of some of the letters written from Ceylon at different 
times, giving our actual every-day experiences, to present to such kind 
friends. 

Then again young ladies have often said to us, " Now please tell us about 
your own labours in Ceylon, and just what work we women can do in the 
foreign field." We have often felt an unspeakable longing, as we have looked 
into the bright, intelligent faces of the young ladies of this favoured land, 
that they might know more fully about the great opportunities of the present 
day for giving the Gospel to their sisters in heathendom. We believe that 
Christ is calling to the consecrated Christian young women of to-day, as He 



vi Introduction. 

has perhaps never called before, for the breaking of alabaster boxes of precious 
ointment on His feet, in this work of giving His message to those who are in 
heathen darkness. 

Love will count no gift too precious, no service too great. Does not 
Christ say to each one of us to-day as He said to Peter, " Lovest thou Me ? " 
" Feed My sheep T 

And He says again, " Otiier sheep I have which are not of this fold ; THEM 
ALSO I MUST BRING, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one 
fold and one Shepherd." 

There are many of His poor, lost, wandering sheep on the dark mountains 
of heathenism, and they have never heard of the good Shepherd or of the 
heavenly fold. Constrained b)^ love, shall not His disciples go out after these 
lost ones with the prayer in their hearts, " Let my whole life be a SEARCH 
for them " ? 

MARY AND MARGARET W. LEITCH. 




XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 



aBfe of QontentB. 

CHAPTER 

I. Arrival and First Impres- 
sions IN Ceylon 
II. Revival Meetings 
III. Two Little Pariahs 
First Year's Review 
A Visit to a 
Heathen School . 
A Great Heathen 
Festival 
Hopeful Signs . 
Mutthuch^kdy's Money-Box 
The Sivite Preacher 
Little Thankam 
Second Year's Experience at 
Heathen Festival 
A Brief Visit to the Pulney Hills 
A Contrast ..... 
Third Year's Experience at the Great 
Festival 
Letter from a Christmas-Tree 
The Week of Prayer 
Protection in Time of Danger 
A Christian Wedding 
Persecution and Deliverance . 




THE Great 



Heajhen 



7 
II 
i6 



26 
30 
32 

35 

42 

45 
48 

54 

58 
61 
64 
67 
70 
73 



viii Tabic of Contents. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XX. A Brief Visit to Newera Ellia 77 

XXI. Itinerating on the Ist.and.s 82 

XXII. Gnanamutthu . . . . 87 

XXIII. Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour ... 90 

XXIV. Precious Pearl 94 

XXV. Meenatchie, the Island Girl 96 

XXVI. The Liquor Traffic, a Great Foe of Missions . . .101 

XXVII. Farewell Address from the Native Christians, and Lyric. 113 

"XXVIII. Miss Eliza Agnew; or One Woman's Work in the Foreign 

Field 116 

XXIX. TopsY and the Fakir Woman 123 

XXX. Dasammah, the little Heroine . . . . . .126 

XXXI. Jaffna College 129 

XXXII. Medical Mission Agency 155 

XXXIII. Appendix; Maria Peabody. . • . ■ 168 





SEVEN YEARS IN CEYLON, 



CHAPTER I. 

Arrival and First Impressions in Ceylon. 

Udupitty, Jaffna, Ceylon, Feb. 6///, iSSo. 
IE arrived here safely from Colombo on Jan. 14th. As we neared the shore 
of Jaffna we saw several handkerchiefs waved at us by missionaries who 
had come to meet us, and the words " Welcome home ! " came over the 
water. We had supposed we were among strangers, but from that 
morning to this we have felt that we were at home with our friends. The bandies 
were waiting to take us to the mission-house at Udupitty, which is to be our home for 
the present. It seemed strange to be seated in a carriage before the horse had been 
attached ; but we saw our mistake when six stout coohes (native runners) laid hold of 




A?i Ode of Welcome. 



fhe thills of the bandy and started off at a rattling pace, which they kept up nearly all 
the way. They passed over the sixteen miles between Jaffna town and Udupitty in a 
little over two and a half hours, preferring to go all the way themselves rather than 
be relieved by another set of coolies, because they wanted, as they said, to take the 
new missionaries home themselves. 

When we were within a mile of the station, one of the coolies was despatched to 
herald our arrival. As we reached the mission premises we found the children of the 
station boys' school on one side and the station girls' school on the other, dressed in 
their best clothes, and the missionaries on the veranda steps ready to greet us. The 
veranda entrance-door and sitting-room had been adorned by the native Christians 
wiih festoons and wreaths of flowers, in honour of our coming. The native pastor 
and others were waiting to speak to us, and, in true Oriental fashion, the girls of the 
Udupitty Boarding-school, twenty-five in number, with their teachers, had prepared a 
lyric of welcome. Both words and tune were original with them, and they sang it 
very sweetly. We were deeply touched by this so unexpected and kind a reception. 
I translate the lyric here, 

CHORUS. 
" Come, let us sing — welcome ! 
Let us sing rejoicingly — ^joy ! hurrah ! ' 

SUE-CHORUS. 

" Ye united members of the church, 
The girls of the boarding-school. 
Come," etc. 

VERSES. 

" Way the new missionaries prosper. 
They have come, with warm attachment, 
To show the heavenly way to the multitudes of people, by 

pouring 
In their ears the honey of the teachings of the Gospel. 

Joy ! hurrah ! 
Come, let us sing — welcome, etc. 

" That the knowledge may increase and the darkness be 
e.Npelled, 
And all sing hallelujah to the almighty Father, 
The Son, and the Holy Ghost. Joy ! hurrah ! 
Come, let us sing — welcome, etc. 

" I'raise the Lord for ever for the mercy of giving them 
A safe arrival in Jaffna, passing over a long voyage. Joy \ 

hurrah ! 
Come, let us sing — welcome," etc. 




iam:i, c.iri.s. 



First Sabbath i-n Udiipiity. 3 

The second day after our arrival the annual business meeting of the mission was held 
at Udupitty. This gave us an opportunity to meet the other missionaries in the field. 
Among them were the Rev. and Mrs. W. VV. Howland, who came out in 1846 and have 
grown old in this work. They have been called by some here a second Zacharias and 
Elisabeth, who walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 
There was also present Miss Eliza Agnew, the veteran missionary, who has been here 
forty years without going home, and who is a model of energy and decision. The 
•magnitude of the work carried on here far exceeds our expectations. As we heard 
one report after another, reviewing the labours of the year, the schools supervised, the 
training of native catechists and teachers, the village work, the baptisms, and the 
communicants, the house visitations, tent meetings, etc., etc., we were filled with 
wonder, and could only praise the Lord and take courage, thanking Him that we 
were to be fellow-workers with such a band of noble men and women. 

We are hard at work upon the language, with a native Munshee. Besides our 
regular lesson in the grammar and reader, we are learnmg some portions of Scripture 
and hymns. We can sing already, " Come to Jesus," " The Sweet By-and-By," and 
parts of other hymns in Tamil. We think in a week or two we shall pronounce with 
sufficient correctness to be able to join in the congregational singing. 

The Hymn "Come to Jesus," Sound of the Tamil words 
IN Tamil. in English. 

GujCrGSicui- Gfffr. Yea-su-vayt chare. 

1. Qiu3^<:s)eus- Qan — §^eisrQp. I. Yea-su-vayt chare — eun-day. 

2. SlLuuH ^eirSsur — ^eirQp, 2. Meurd-par une-ney — eun-day. 

3. jiieki^ si^iieiifra — ^eirQp. 3, An-pu koor-viir — eun-day. 

4. /eimlS eunQpek — ^emQp. 4. Num-pe va-rane— eun-day. 

5. ^eoQso^iuir ! — ^Owesr. 5. Al-le-lu-iah — a-men. 

The first Sabbath we were here, Mrs. Howland gave me the care of the 
infant Sunday-school class. They come from the chapel to my veranda, and all sit 
round me on a large mat, and look up with such bright, intelligent faces, that already 
I am beginning to love them very much. They number sixty little girls, all under 
ten years of age. Perhaps some people would laugh at me for calling them pretty, 
and say something about beauty unadorned; but though many of them wear only a 



Tent Meetinsis. 



single garment, yet their eager faces and attractive quiet ways make up for a good 
many deficiencies. 

About forty native children come upon my veranda every afternoon to sew, and I 
talk to them, through an interpreter, and teach them Bible verses. My brother, sister, 
and I have gone out several times into the villages with the native helpers. The 
natives seem glad to see us, and ready to listen. Some of them say they do not 
believe in idols, and would become Christians if it were not that they would lose caste, 
and be persecuted by all their friends. 

The missionaries of this station, the Rev. and Mrs. S. W. Rowland and Miss Towns- 
end, go out often in the morning and in the cool of the evening to hold meetings 
in the different villages. They have mothers' meetings at the mission-house, which are 
well attended by the heathen women. Sometimes they go out with the tent, remaining 
several days at a time m one place, and thus gain access to those who could not be 

reached in any other way. 
A few days ago they had 
the tent pitched at Thande- 
raannar. In the afternoon 
the girls of this boarding- 
school went down in a body 
to sing, as the natives are 
very fond of music, and can 
often be moved byChristian 
songs. After they had sung 
several hymns, as there were 
a large number of heathen 
women and children pre- 
sent, Mrs. Rowland sug- 
gested that each girl should 
take one or two women 
and talk with them for a 
little while. They received 
and acted upon the sugges- 
tion most beautifully, each 
girl sitting right down on the mats by the side of the one she was going to talk with, 
and one or two of the high-caste girls of the school gathering some of the little fisher- 
caste children around them-. They talked very earnestly, and when, after a time, the 
missionary lady changed the order of e.Kercises, they came to her, one after another, 





A Day at OodoovUle. 5 

with such glowing faces, saying, " Oh, amma ! I did have 
such a pleasant time with the little children ! " or, " Oh, 
amma ! the woman I was talking with promised to begin to 
pray to-night ; and oh ! won't we pray for her when we get 
home ! Won't we all meet together and pray for these 
women ! " 

A few days after our arrival we had the pleasure of 
spending a day at Oodooville, seeing Miss Agnew and 
visiting the boarding-school. Here also they had prepared 
a lyric for us. We listened to five recitations, and we were 
all much pleased with the appearance of the school. New 
buildings are in process of erection, and the corner-stone is 
to be laid on February loth. We also attended the annual 
examination and commencement exercises of Jaffna College. 
It was a most interesting occasion. All the examinations 
were in English, and considering that whatever the boys 
knew concerning the sciences, mathematics, philosophy and 

history, had been learned and must be repeated in a foreign tongue, the boys did great 

credit to their instructors. 

I should like to tell you of the commencement exercises of the Ijdupitty Girls' 

Boarding-school, and of the monthly missionary meeting, where we met all the 

missionaries from the Wesleyan and Church Missionary Societies as well as our own, 

but I am writing too long a letter. 

This is harvest-time, and the fields are full of reapers and gleaners. The work is all 

done by hand, the grain carried home on the heads of men and women, and threshed 

or trodden out by cattle. I am glad that our first impressions of the country should 

be received now, after the rainy season, when the island is covered with verdure, and 

looks fruitful and inviting. 

1 close with the following letter of greeting from Miss Agnew, which was given us 

soon after our arrival at Jaffna : — 

My DEAR Missionary Sisters : — With a warm heart and inexpressible delight do I 
give you Eliezer's welcome, — " Come in, thou blessed of the Lord." 

For two years past have we sent the Macedonian cry, " Come over and help us." 
Though I was so anxious for two, yet my stinted faith would not allow me to revel 
in the anticipation that more than one would be added to our mission circle. 

I do rejoice that our heavenly Father has sent you to this Eden of the East, and 
2* 



A Letter of Greettug. 



ihat you are allied in the ties of nature, and that you have a brother to aid and 
counsel you. This society may prevent loneliness from usurping even a small 
corner of your hearts. Every day prayer was offered for your safety while journeying 
on the sea and on the land. 

You are coming to a goodly country, "where every prospect pleases " — no Anakims 
to fear. Your necessary weapons will be the living coals from the altar of the Lord 
in your hearts and upon your lips, and the sword of the Spirit in your right hands. 
Fear not : let timidity have no place : press forward ; and in the spirit and with the 
anguage of the chief apostle to the Gentiles, say, in strong faith, "I can do all things 
through Christ which strengtheneth me." Necessity is laid upon every missionary to 
inscribe upon his breastplate, " Look unto Jesus," and to follow the example of the 
disciples of John the Baptist, who, after the burial, " went and told Jesus." The 
blood-bought mercy-seat will appear to you a more precious place in a heathen than 
in a Christian land. Deprived of so many of your spiritual aids, you will be more 
inclined to enter the holy of holies, where Jesus answers prayer. 

I hope that you are as highly favoured as Heman's three daughters, who could sing 
in the house of the Lord. And though you may not understand how to strike the 
cymbal, or make melody on the harp, I trust you can handle the organ, and thus 
enhance the sweetness of our music whenever we frequent the gates of Zion. 

I know of no other individual in any mission who has, like myself, remained at one 
station forty years. In relation to my work, in spirit I know no change, but physically 
1 am weary, weary, weary, and need, as Jesus did, to " turn aside and rest awhile." 

Yours, affectionately, 

Eliza Aonew 








A CLUMP OF BAMBOOS. 



CHAPTER II. 

liEvivAL Meetings. 

Udupitty, April 1th, l8So. 
I E left home last week, Tuesday, starting out in the early morning, and reached 
the Rev. and Mrs. T. S. Smith's, of TilUpally — having gone a distance of 
ten miles — in time for breakfast. 

Can you imagine our ride that morning ? The misty morning air was cool 
and invigorating. Our way lay through several villages. The road was level and well 
kept, and here and there shaded by beautiful clumps of bamboo, or by banyan, olive 




8 Suffering Perseaiiion for Christ's sake. 

mango, margosa and other trees. The birds were singing merrily : the cocoaniit and 
jack trees were laden with hanging fruit ; and here and there a maxi might be seen 
climbing a smooth, tall palmyra palm. We studied Tamil all the way, while our coolies 
flew over the ground, needing no word from us except now and then a request not to 
go so fast. It is their pride to go fast, and they laugh and joke on the way, chaffing 
each other for going so slowly. When we reach our destination they usually eat 
their rice and curry, and then lie down on the ground to sleep in the shade of 
some tree, until we are ready to go on again. If we hold a meeting, they come in 
and listen. 

From Tillipally we went to Oodooville. The special revival meetings commenced 
on ^Vednesday evening. Those who knew the people said that many came who had 
never been inside a church before. There were quite a number of^requests for prayer 
sent in. They were given, in some instances, by people with tears running down their 
faces, so much in earnest were they that their friends might be brought to Christ. 
One man arose, his voice choked with emotion, and intimated that he had long 
been convinced of the truth of Christianity, and asked our prayers that he might 
become a Christian that day. One after another prayed for him, as they knew better 
than we his circumstances and the trials to which he would be exposed. It seems that 
he belongs to quite a good family, and his wife has a considerable property. Before 
he reached home the word had gone before him that he had asked for prayers, and 
his wife and family shut the door upon him, and drove him from the house. He has 
to sleep out of doors, and prepare his own food, while his friends either scoff and jeer 
at him, or refuse to notice him at all. We have just heard that he is standing firm, 
and that his younger son has joined him and wishes also to become a Christian. 
The elder son sides with the mother. 

I notice by the American papers that during the month of March Jaffna was made a 
subject of prayer ; so that while we were holding these meetings the people at home 
were bearing us up in their hearts before God. I have not the least doubt that those 
petitions were answered, for it was the opinion of all the missionaries present that the 
Spirit of God was wonderfully manifested. Native ministers and workers came from 
a distance of sixteen or eighteen miles, and they said they were going back to their 
people to hold special meetings among them. There were many working- women 
present, who were helping to erect the new .school-building. They work as hard as 
men, from seven in the morning till six at night. But they attended the half-past six 
morning prajer-meeting, and went quietly out to work at seven, coming in again at 
seven in the evening and staying till nine ; then they went into my sister's room, and 
listened eagerly while she talked and prayed with them. Nearly all expressed a desire 



An Aged Convert's Prayer. 

to become Christians, and some 
said they had begun to pray for 
themselves. They were so much 
in earnest that they did not seem 
to know that they were tired, and 
showed no inclination to leave, 
until my sister, quite worn out 
with the labours of the day — 
singing, playing on the organ, 
etc. — would tell them they might 
go. 

Some of the women of a higher 
caste came into my room and 
prayed for one and another of 
their friends. Two came who 
had just decided to become 
Christians. One asked us to 
pray for her two daughters. 
" Oh ! " she said, wringing her 
hands, " I have given them to 
heathen husbands, and if they 
are lost it will be my own work ! " 
We tried to tell her that if she 
would strive for them, and pray 
in faith, God would hear her 
prayer. One woman prayed very earnestly that the Lord would make her duty plain. 
She said she loved Jesus Christ with her whole heart, and wanted to serve Him, but 
if she came out openly as a Christian her friends would discard her, and she was too 
old to earn her own living. What would she do in her old age ? She would die of 
starvation. We could only pray that the Lord would guide her. I wish you could 
see how these people listen ; how they lean forward to catch every word ; how 
earnestly they pray. They seem hungry for the Bread of Life, and I am sure the 
Lord says, " They need not depart ; give ye them to eat." When His disciples are 
ready to take the bread and give it to the people, and they are ready to give it to each 
other, all will soon be fed. 

My sister and I had a meeting with the boarding-school girls at OodooviUe, those 
who were Christians coming to my room, and those who were not to my sister's. The 




NEST OF THE TREE TERMITE {Teviiies arbomni). 



10 Young Men deciding for Clirist. 

Christian girls promised me that they would each take one or two of the non-Christian 
girls and pray specially for them till they became Christians. Those who were not 
told my sister, with tears in their eyes, that they wanted to become Christians that 
day ; they were sorry to see the meetings close. 

I have just received word from the Rev. Mr. Smith that four of the young men of 
the training-school, who attended the meeting?, have decided to become Christians, 
and three from the Chunnargam boys' school. It is said that many men, especially 
those who liave been educated in mission schools, would gladly become Christians, 
but are kept back by their heathen wives. These women, when not educated, are 
extremely bigoted. They tell their husbands that, if they become Christians, they will 
throw themselves into the well ; and they mean what they say. These mothers take 
their young children to the temple and teach them to bow before the idol, and smear 
their faces with ashes. All this shows the importance of the education of girls in 
boarding-schools. 

The people seemed to be more and more interested in the meetings each day. We 
hope to have another series of special meetings before long. 







(Jdupitty, June \st, iSSo. 

glOR several days, as I sat studying by my 
window, I noticed two bright little faces 
peering at me through the hedge. The new 
Aramas with their white skin and European 
dress are a great curiosity to the little brown-skinned 
children of this country. Some days after, my attention 
was attracted by a little coughing near my window. 
This is the way the Tamil people knock. When they 
wish to 'call upon us or among themselveSj instead of 
knocking at the door as we would do, they stand outside 
and make a little noise, scraping with their feet, coughing, 
or sneezing. Looking up I saw the same two little faces 
which I had noticed before through the hedge. 

These two little boys were not dressed like children in 
America or England, but, like all little children here, 
wore only a strip of cloth about their loins. Their hair, 
which is generally allowed to grow long, was done up in 
a knot on the left side of the head over the left ear. 



PARIAH Cmi.Dr.EN Al PLAY. 



Caste. 



But their little graceful bodies, and their bright, eager faces, soon made one forget any 
peculiarities of colour or dress. 

" Amma ! Amma ! " they said when I had called them to me, " we want to study 
reading at the boys' school." " Well," I said, " why do you not speak with the teacher 
about this ? " " ^Ve cannot, we do not dare 
go into the yard, we are ' Pariahs,' " they 
said, as a pained look came into their eyes 
— a look sadly out of place in such young* 
faces. 

The system of caste runs through the whole 
fabric of society here. In each caste the 
descendants must follow the occupation ot 
their parents. If a man is a carpenter, for 
example, his sons must all become carpenters, 
and his daughters must marry carpenters. 
The different castes have no opportunity to 
rise, but are doomed to remain in the con- 
dition in which they are born. They do not 
intermarry, do not mingle together socially, 
do not eat together, but are essentially 
different communities of people. 

There is the highest, or Brahmin caste, 
who are priests— thick, fat fellows, who never 
do any work ; then the farmers, their 
servants, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths 
and their washers ; and ne.xt the tree- 
climbers and their washermen ; and lastly 

the weavers, drum-beaters and their washermen. Each keep to their own work, and 
each are heartily despised by the caste above them, and in the same way look down 
upon the caste below them. Even the drum-beaters' castes have a caste under them 
to do their washing. It was to this, the " Pariah Caste," these two little boys who 
stood by my window said they belonged. A century ago, in the darker days of Ceylon, 
this caste of people were never allowed to leave their houses except in the night, and 
then they were obliged to drag a large branch behind them, so that any one of a 
higher caste walking in the street might hear and call upon them to turn aside until 
they had passed ; for to touch, speak to, or even look at a person of this low caste 
was considered a pollution. 




A CARPENTER. 



A Scanty Wardrobe. 



13 



What a disgrace to put upon a human being made in the image of God ! Shame on 
the religion of Siva which upholds and fosters such wickedness. Under English rule 
the Pariahs have liberty to go and come as they please ; but they are everywhere 
scorned and oppressed. 

They have some queer customs. Often poor tree-climbers own only a single cloth. 
In order to wash this they ask the washerman, and he 
does not refuse, to lend them the cloth of some other 
person which he has taken to \\asb, while he takes and 
washes theirs ; thus it is not an uncommon thing for one 
to see his cloth, which he has sent to be ■s\ ashed, ^\orn 
on the person of a strangei The 
washerman stands knee-deep m water 
and bleaches the garments by knocking 
them over the stones, swinging them 
over his head as a thresher does his 
flail ; to dry them he spreads them by 
the road-side on the hot sand, and 
places a few stones on the corners to 
keep them from blowing away. He is 
rarely paid in m.oney, but is geneially 
given the leavings of table food and a 
little rice and curry stuffs. 

We told the 
two little boys, 
whose names 
we learned we re 
Kassappu and 
Kadpeyal, that 
if they would 
come the fol- 
lowing day, 
with their 
bodies bathed 
and their hair 
nicely combed, 
we would go 
■with them our- 



VVASHERJIE.'^. 




14 Breakmg down Caste Barriers. 

selves to the school. The first thing which I saw on looking out of my window 
early the next morning was the two little boys watching for me. I went with them to 
the school, but could hardly induce the little fellows to enter ; they fairly trembled 
with fear as they stood in the presence of higher caste boys. After years of persistent 
effort, the missionaries have succeeded in inducing the children of a large number ot 
castes to study together in the schools, though it is amusing to see the highest caste 
boys sometimes bringing little mats with them on which to sit, and so preserve their 
tottering dignity. The teacher, a Christian native, willingly promised to receive and 
do his best for the little boys. We passed through the school bungalow with its 
thatched roof, where the higher standards were studying, through the veranda where 
the middle standards were reciting, and came into the yard, where, under the trees, 
sat twenty or more little boys busily engaged writing out their lessons with little sticks 
in the sand. 

I motioned Kassappu and Kadpeyal to sit down with the others, when lo ! as 
quick as lightning, these twenty little naked morsels of society scattered on all sides 
as if they had been poisoned, crying, " Cha ! Cha ! " while one gave the youngest little 
boy a vicious pinch, and another actually spat at them. How strange that children five 
and six years old could imbibe and cherish such bitter prejudices ! 

The two little boys sat that day in a corner of the j'ard by themselves, but the next 
day brought word that the whole school was threatening to leave, and even the Mani- 
agar or head man of the village had sent word that, if these low-caste boys c5.nie, he 
would not allow his child to come. I decided that rather than break up the school I 
would for the present teach the boys myself. This storm of public sentiment was 
a great surprise to me. The upper caste said, " If this caste be educated, who 
will do our washing?" — the old spirit of slavery which has only lately been wiped out 
in our own land. 

The little boys came to our veranda each day for a lesson, and learned well, mastering 
the 247 letters of the Tamil alphabet with surprising quickness. They learned many 
things outside of their books, among others to say "Good morning," and " Thank 
you." One day we showed them a picture-book. They had never seen a picture 
before in all their lives, poor things, but v;hen I pointed out to them the children 
and trees and animals in the pictures, they caught at the idea. You should have 
seen their delight, and have heard their shout when they themselves discovered a cat 
and a dog. 

One day, while they were with us, a class of fourteen large boys, whose Bible lesson 
in English my sister had kindly offered to teach through the term, came in. When they 
saw these two poor little washer-boys they fairly glared at them. Sister said, " Why do 



Our Little P aria /is. 15 

you look so angry ? " They answered, " Those boys have no right to come here. 
They are low caste. If we should take up a little stick they would run from us. It is 
not the custom of the country to show them any attention." That is the excuse here 
for every kind of evil practice. " It is the custom of the country, ma'am." Sister 
went up to the little boys, and putting her hand on the head of the older, said, •' God 
made this little boy as well as you. He gave to him an immortal soul as well as to 
you. Jesus Christ died to save him and you. You will both stand together in the 
judgment. God says He hates pride, and if you are proud and despise this little boy 
for whom Jesus Christ died, you sin against God." 

The next day the school boys did not come, and the reason given was that my sister 
had disgraced herself by touching these boys of a low caste, and they did not wish 
to be taught by such a person. We said nothing, knowing that the class enjoyed 
coming too well to deprive themselves of it long. And we were right. They came 
the following morning with a shamefaced look. 

Kassappu and Kadpeyal continue to come to us, and are just the brightest, 
funniest, most affectionate little boys I ever saw. They are philanthropic little fellows 
too ; for finding themselves well received, and expanding under kindness like flowers 
in the sunshine, they came .bringing three other little boys and two little girls, who 
they insist, with all earnestness, must also learn to read. 

What a shame that all their caste, from no fault of their own, should practically 
be shut out from social privileges, and condemned to be always poor, ignorant, 
and despised, with no bright future before them in this life, and with no prospect in 
view for the life to come, according to Hinduism, but to live again on earth, perhaps as 
an insect or a snake ! 

In contrast with all this how should we thank God for giving to the world His dear 
Son, a Saviour to the poor and the lost ! The sight which I saw a few days ago, of 
three hundred Christian natives sitting down without regard to caste at the common 
table of our Lord, gave proof of what the Gospel has done, and a promise of what it 
will do yet more abundantly in this land. 

As sure as God's word is true, so surely may we rely on the promise, " The whole 
earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God." 






MANEPY MISSION HOUSE AND PUPILS FROM THE STATION SCHOOLS. 

CHAPTER IV. 
First Year's Review. 

Maiiepy, December \6l/i, iSSo. 
TIME has flown so swiftly of late that I cannot realize that it is a year and 
three months since we left America, nearly a year since we landed in 
Jaffna, and ten weeks since we came to Manepy. This year has been 
the busiest, and I think, all things considered, the happiest year of my 
life. I can truly say that I have never for one moment regretted my coming to 
Ceylon, but have lelt thankful to God for permitting me to be a co-labourer with the 
missionaries in this land. 

As you may know, there are over 300.000 people in North Ceylon. Labouring 
among them are two families under the English Church Mission, two under the 
English Wesleyan Mission, and five under our own; which allows an average of over 
30,000 people to each missionary family. What would any pastor at home think of 
such a charge ? 

Manepy is one of the smaller stations, and we have within its boundaries only 
about 10,000 people.' There are two Christian churches— one here at the station, 
the other at Navaly — numbering together one hundred and four communicants. 
There is one pastor, and another to bs ordained very soon. As helpers, there are 

' A short time after tlii.s the station of Paiidileiippu also w-ts given into our care. 



Work at Manepy. , 17 

two catechists and two Bible-women. These do much faithful house-to-house work 
in the villages, hold cottage meetings and Sabbath services, and assist in our large 
tent-meetings. The church-members, as a whole, are active and earnest. They 
have surprised us by their willingness to co-operate with us and act upon our sugges- 
tions. As far as I have means of knowing them personally, I am led to think that 
they are truly God's children, really changed by the Holy Spirit. The missionary 
work would not have been a failure here had it done nothing more than save and bless 
these men and women. 

We have within the Manepy district eight Sabbath-schools, with thirty-four teachers, 
and an average attendance of eight hundred scholars. Three of these have been 
organized during the last two months, and all have increased in their attendance. The 
station Sabbath-school has increased from not quite one hundred to two hundred and 
thirty-five, and will, I hope, number three hundred before New Year's Day. If you could 
look in upon us with our eighteen teachers and classes nicely graded, our " Inter- 
national Lesson Leaves," and Sankey's hymns in Tamil, our organ and black- 
board, you would forget for the moment, I think, that you were in a heathen 
land. 

There are in the Manepy district ten day-schools, supported mainly by Government 
grants, but under the direction of a Board of Education, composed of native 
Christians and missionaries. In these schools are thirty-one teachers, the majority of 
whom are Christians. This is an important field, and we hope to make the most of it. 
The teachers, both Christian and heathen, were delighted with our proposition to visit 
the schools once a week and devote an hour in each to the study of a Bible lesson. 
We sold several hundred copies of the Gospel of Matthew in Tamil, selected a verse of 
scripture to be learned and a portion to be read each day, secured the co-operation of 
the teachers in teaching the lesson every day during the first hour in the morning, and 
mapped out the schools for our weekly round of visits. 

The plan has succeeded thus far beyond our highest expectations. The teachers 
have entered heartily into it, for they feel that our weekly visits will prove a real 
encouragement to the schools and an honour to themselves, so highly are the mission- 
aries esteemed throughout Jaffna. The moment we are seen approaching the school, 
all lay aside their books, and when we enter they rise and give us salaams. The 
seats have been already arranged, and we take our different classes and go over the 
different lessons of the week, which have been so well prepared that only once have 
we had reason to complain. We try to make the lessons enjoyable, and slowly, but 
surely, we hope to win our way into the confidence of the children, and make them our 
friends. The aim of all our efforts is to win them to Jesus Christ. 



i8 Young Men and their Diffiatlties. 

Sixteen young men are studying in a select school at the station. As they come from 
heathen homes, they find, after having lived under Christian influence for some time, 
that their old faith is shaken, and their minds are full of doubts. To meet these 
doubts we asked them to write out any points that were troubling them^ or questions 
they would like to ask, and we promised on each Monday afternoon to answer them, 
as far as we could. Since then the questions have poured in upon us, and the eager- 
ness with which they lean forward and listen to our answers, and the remarks 
they make in return, show that the difficulties are real, and their minds alive and 
active. 

I will give you a few specimens of their questions : " What is religion ? " " What 
is the cause of the existence of the different religions?" "What are the evidences 
that the Christian religion is true?" "What are the external evidences that Christ, 
rather than Mahomet and Buddha, was a revelation of God?" " If Christ paid the 
penalty for our sins, why did He not suffer to all eternity ? " " Why did God place 
the forbidden fruit in the garden, when He knew Adam would disobey? " " Why was 
Jacob blessed instead of Esau ? " " Why did the angels fall from heaven — is it a 
place of temptation ?" " What will become of the soul between death and the judg- 
ment?" " If the doctrine of transmigration is not true, why are men born blind or 
deformed, if not for some former sin ? " etc. 

Since they themselves ask these questions, we have an opportunity to 
tell them some truths from which they cannot get away, and which are destined 
to stay in their minds until they are either answered or accepted. We 
have had their cheerful assent, thus far, to all we have said. We have allowed 
them perfect freedom of speech, and have endeavoured never to leave a point until 
it was fully understood. Our hearts yearn over these sixteen young men in their 
opening manhood. Will you not pray with us that they may truly find the light of 
life? 

We have a meeting for native Christian mothers and children on Tuesday after- 
noons, which usually numbers fifty or sixty. The Christian women lead in prayer, 
repeat verses, and take turns in leading the meeting and explaining the Scripture 
lesson. Our great desire and hope for Manepy is, that every Christian woman may 
take it up as her work to teach some three or four heathen women to read the Bible. 
This would be a permanent influence, reaching out into the heathen homes, and, step 
by step, the heathen mothers might be led to pray to God, to come to church, and, 
finally, to Jesus. The seclusive and exclusive habits of Eastern women, together with 
caste distinctions and their strong prejudices, make it very difficult to carry out this 
plan ; still, " with God all things are possible." The women have already made a 



Our Coolies and Our House. 19 

beginning, and twelve pupils were reported at our last meeting, besides those whom 
the Bible-women reach regularly. 

In the moonlight evenings, through half of the month, we have tent meetings, which 
are quite largely attended. We have a good-sized tent, received from Madras, which 
our coolies can put up in forty-five minutes, and take down in fifteen. If we go out 
with the tent, organ, lamps, hymn-books, etc., we are sure to have a good audience in 
almost any village. We have had from one hundred and fifty to two hundred at these 
gatherings. 

The rainy season is upon us now, which makes it a little difficult to get about 
through the muddy fields and lanes. The rice-fields are flooded, but our coolies are 
always ready to take us anywhere and in any weather. These coolies are really 
a great comfort, and are useful in many ways besides drawing the bandy. They have 
begun to learn to read, and are making good progress. It is interesting when we are 
in the schools to see them sitting outside, studying their books in the interval of 
waiting. The three whom we employ regularly have learned the Lord's Prayer in 
Tamil, and their voices join with ours every morning as we repeat it at the close of 
family prayers. They go to church and Sabbath -school. It is our prayer that they 
may soon truly know our Saviour, and give their hearts to Him. They seem quite like 
friends to us now, and we are so accustomed to them that we do not notice, as we 
did at first, their dark skins, shaven heads, or the absence of all clothing except a 
yard or two about the waist. They cannot be induced to wear more, both on account 
of the heat and because it is not the custom among their caste. Their only food is 
rice and curry, which they cook themselves. Their whole expense amounts to about 
$2.25 in American money per month for each. 

Our home in Manepy is a very pleasant one. The compound is large, and has over 
forty kinds of trees. Near the house we have the flambo, now just ready to burst 
into a glory of scarlet blossoms ; the cork-tree, with its white clusters of sweet-smell- 
ing flowers, which cover the ground like snow; and on the other side the tamarind, 
with its acid fruit-pods. There are mahogany, olive, margosa, teak, iron-wood, ebony, 
mango, jack, wood-apple, and many other kinds of trees in the yard. Above them 
shoot up the cocoa-nut and Palmyra palms, with their magnificent tall trunks and great 
tufted heads. 

Our house has three large and four small rooms, all on the ground floor, which is 
raised about four feet above the ground. The walls are of stone and mortar ; the 
floors are of the same, to prevent the invasion of white ants. We have only a few 
glass windows ; the other windows, as well as the doors, are supplied with shutters, 
which may be used at night to give security, and a free access of air at the same time. 



The Pleasant Rainy Season, 




Oi r tuiniture ib the i Hin, 
cane-bottomed kind ; some, of 
it brought from America, the 
rest made here by native car- 
penters, who imitate English 
patterns with great exactness. 
We have learned to like rice 
and curry, and nearly all the 
native fruits and products. 
Our dress for the whole year is 
of white material, plainly made. 

Our flower-garden in front 
' the house provides our table 
w ith fresh roses daily ; and 
our vegetable garden con- 
tains over forty plantain-trees. 
.'here is nothing dreary about 
the rainy season ; it seems to 
us the pleasantest part of the 
year. Everywhere the new 
srass is very green and fresh, 
and the sun shines out brightly 
after the heavy showers. The 
mercury stands at about 85° 
in the shade without mm h 
change. In the house in the 
hottest season the mercury 
seldom rises above 93'^, and rarely falls in the coolest season below 76'. 



•€ 



^''U 



THE JACK TREE, SHOWING FRUIT. 




SHRINE OF THE GOD PULLIAR. 




CHAPTER V. 
A Visit to a Heathen School. 

Manepy, March wth, 1881. 
UDGING by what we can learn from the experience of the missionaries 
who have been here longest, it would seem that the work among the 
young is followed by the most encouraging results. 

We visit our schools every week, giving a Bible-lesson. Many of the 
children can now repeat the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the greater 
part of the fifth and sixth chapters of Matthew : they are at present learning the 
seventh. Some have committed to memory the twenty-third and one-hundred-and- 
third Psalms. We take our little organ with us, as they have learned many of the 
Sankey hymns, and many Christian lyrics. I rejoice to think, when these boys and 
girls shall have grown to be men and women, how very precious these hymns will 
become to them. 

3* 



22 A Too Zealous Teacher. 

Our great desire is to get all these children into the Sabbath-school, and we are trying 
to enlist the teachers on our side. In one school, we have succeeded better than we 
wished. Only last week we discovered that the teacher was in the habit of calling up 
the scholars every Monday morning to ask if they had attended Sabbath-school the 
day before, and if they had not, they would receive a whipping ! When we asked for 
an explanation, we were told that they had tried the plan of giving a good mark to 
those who had attended, and a bad one to those who had not ; but as some of the 
scholars were always at the foot of the class, this had no effect upon them, and so they 
thought they would try something else. Of course, we explained that however effective 
this might be in one direction, it utterly failed in accomplishing our main object, which 
was to win the love and sympathy of the children for the Sabbath-school ; and that we 
would try to make the place so attractive that they would want to come. 

In one school, a private school not connected with our mission, situated in 
Santilipay, which is the strongest Sivite community in this field, we have not yet 
obtained a permit to teach. We visited the school, a short time ago, with a 
permission, or rather with an invitation, from the manager to do so. A relative of 
one of the teachers volunteered to accompany us ; but it seems that the teachers, 
knowing that we were coming, had determined that Christianity should be kept out 
of their school. When we entered three of the teachers received us courteously, but 
the fourth seemed more opposed to Christianity tlian the others. After we had 
listened for awhile to various recitations we asked : — 

" Is English taught in this school ? " 

"Why should we teach English.'"' he asked. "It is not a primitive language. 
Sanscrit is the primitive language." 

" Don't you think there are many valuable books in English ? " 

" The most valuable books are in Tamil," he answered. " The books in 
English are not true. The works of the greatest writers who have ever lived are in 
Sanscrit.'' 

" You are an educated man," we replied, " and you know that the most valuable 
"books in science — those which you accept and believe — are found not in the Tamil or 
the Sanscrit, but in the English." 

" What do we care for science ? " he asked in reply. " Our religious books are in 
Sanscrit." 

" Well, this is not a matter on which we need to dispute," we said. " You have 
studied English, and we are learning Tamil." 

At this point one of the teachers said, " We have a class in English, and we would 
like to have you examine it, if you please." So he called up a class, and my brother 



A Moonlis:ht Meetbu 



23 



examined them in their studies, commended them a little, and interested them in 
some subjects of which they had not thought before. 

As we had been visiting other schools in the morning, we had our little organ with 
us, and had let our coolies carry it into this school-room. We noticed that the organ 
had been regarded with considerable curiosity, and we asked if they would like to 
have us sing something. "Nothing religious," said the teacher before spoken of; but 
the others all said, " Yes, yes ; please sing something." So we sang, " There's a land 
that is fairer than day," in Tamil. The children were delighted, and at once gathered 
around as close as they could get to us. When we had sung a little we proposed to 
go, not wishing to infringe upon their time. We said to the teachers that it would 
give us pleasure to have them call on us, when 
they felt disposed to do so. 

When coming away we noticed that the teacher 
whom we had talked with had trouble with his 
eyes, and on inquiry we were surprised to learn 
that he was totally blind. The moment we 
showed interest in his eyes his manner changed, 
and his anxiety was very great as we examined 
the eyes. Oh, what would he not give for sight ! 
We told him that possibly his sight might be re- 
stored ; but he did not know that it could be, as he 
has been doctoring with native drugs. We asked 
him to come to our house, and we would note 
down his symptoms ; and he consented with great 
eagerness. He came a little time 
afterward, and we had considerable 
conversation with him. If his sight 
could be restored by going to 
Madras for an operation, it would 
be a great event in favour of 
Christianity in the region where 
he lives. 

The same day that we visited 
the Sivite school, we had a 
moonlight meeting in the village. 
We felt some anxiety with regard to 
it, as there were so many educated 




24 Caste Troubles. 

people in the place who were strong Sivites. We noliced, also, that the Christians 
looked troubled, and they told us afterwards that several heathen had come — as they 
said — to break up the meeting ; but as He arranged it who cares even for the sparrows, 
who numbers the hairs on our heads, and who holds the hearts of all men in His 
hands, we were not molested. Fortunately there was a Christian man of high caste 
with us, who had considerable influence over the people. As my sister and I spoke, 
it was something so new to hear ladies speak that they listened not only with attention, 
but seemed to lean forward to catch every word. They even paid us the compliment 
of saying to one of the Christians that we were " very clever speakers ; " meaning, I 
suppose, very clever for women. 

We have tried to win the confidence of the children, and they are proving our best 
allies. When we wish to hold a meeting in any place we have only to tell the 
scholars, and they come, and bring with them their parents and friends. Almost 
every day the children come to our house and ask, " Where is the next meeting to be ? " 
The little things seem to have much confidence in us ; if any of their friends are sick 
they come to us at once, expecting that we will certainly come and visit them. We 
cannot disappoint their faith in us, and so we have a busy life. 

It is one of the trials of a missionary to see so much sickness and poverty as 
I suppose there must always be in a country so thickly populated as this. People 
at home can hardly appreciate the difference between the higher and lower 
castes of this country. "What!" it is said ; "will not the people in India even sit 
together in church?" But is it really such a strange thing? I have worshipped 
in handsome churches in America, but I never saw one of the elegant members lead 
into church by the arm an Irishman direct from his work on the streets — his fett 
covered with mud, and his clothing guiltless of contact with soap and water — show 
him into his seat, and share his hymn-book with him. But the difference between 
these two people would not represent that between a Brahmin and a Pariah. The 
Brahmin is fastidiously clean ; it is a part of his religion. His clothing is washed every 
day ; he bathes before every meal ; the things by which he would consider himself 
polluted, should they touch him, are almost innumerable. His mind — in a certain 
sense — is highly cultured. 

But the low caste — God pity him ! — how hard a lot is his ! His struggle for 
existence is so great that his spirit is broken ; he has no courage. He very seldom 
washes his clothes — at least so I judge from their appearance. I speak to him of the 
love of God, of His fatherly care, of His pity and sorrow for us, of Jesus Christ as his 
Saviour, and he surprises me by saying, " I will become a Christian if you will tell me 
where I will get something for my children to eat." I begin to think that he who 




Breaking Caste Barriers. 25 

could make two spears of paddy grow 
where only one grows now would be a 
benefactor indeed. There is not a 
r plough in this province. They still 
use a crooked stick, which only 
scratches the surface of the ground ; 
and when a drought comes every- 
thing is burnt up, and we have a 
famine. I am mistaken ; there is 
one plough here, but it is too heavy 
for use. 

I am sure that the great poverty 
of many is a hindrance to their 
becoming Christians. We are trying 
to fight against the spirit of caste. 
We are endeavouring to teach the 
higher castes to pity and help the 
lower castes, and treat them as their 
brethren in Christ. We have succeeded in getting a good many of the low-caste 
women and children, and some men, to attend the church and Sabbath-school. We 
tried to have them sit on the benches. We said, " When we come into God's house 
let there be no difference." But the lower castes would not sit on the benches ; they 
are not accustomed to it : they have not such a thing as a chair in their small houses. 
They sit on a mat spread on the ground, and if we should insist on their sitting on 
seats, they would not come to church ; so we have spread nice clean mats on the 
right and left side of the pulpit, and they are very happy sitting there. 

Our Christians, who are mostly of high-caste, strive very hard to help the lower 
classes. I hardly know of a Christian woman in Manepy who has not pledged herself 
to give a part of one day each week to go out into the villages to teach and help 
those poor people. They do this although some of them have large families, and hard 
work to do at home. 

My letter has grown long, and yet it seems to me that I have scarcely spoken 
about our work. I will simply say that we love it ; that we feel strong and well, to do 
it ; and that we like the field at Manepy very much. 



A PREACHING SEKVICE, 




A HINDU TEMPLE. 




CHAPTER VI. 

A Great Heathen Festival. 

Manepy, Afay 1st, iSSr. 
HE great annual heathen festival of the temple here, lasting twelve days, 
began the ist of April. This temple, which is now one of the most 
celebrated in Jaffna, was forty years ago only a little hut at the base of a 
large tree, and was supposed to be inhabited by the god Pulliar. 
Superstitious and ignorant people vowed, in times of sickness, to make ofterings to 
this god if he would cure them. Gifts began to pour in ; the story of imagined cures 
spread ; and thus in forty years a large and richly endowed temple has grown up, to 
which thousands of devotees flock yearly from all the surrounding country. Perhaps 
the fact that it was just opposite our Christian church and mission premises helped 
its growth, for many Sivites gave toward it for the purpose of showing their opposition 
to Christianity. It is one of eight large temples in this peninsula, besides which there 
are five hundred smaller ones, each with priests and daily offerings, not to mention the 
thousands of family shrines and household gods. 

The daily exercises of the twelve days' feast are as follows : At six o'clock every 
morning the bell is rung, and people gather at the temple. The stone idol of Pulliar 
is in the innermost court ; it represents the god as having an elephant's head, four 
arms, large abdomen, and two dwarf legs, on which he sits Turkish-fashion. The 
idol, bathed carefully with milk and perfumes, is then clothed and decorated wicli 
jewels, and his forehead marked with the sacred ashes, and the third eye of Siva. 
Tlie veil is then opened, and fruits, rice, etc., brought by the worshippers, are offered 
before him. Incense is burned ; prayers unintelligible to the people are uttered 
by the priests ; and songs to his praises, instrumental music, &c., complete the 
ceremony. 



Tlie Worship of P id liar. 27 

Some sacred ashes and pounded sandal-wood offered to the god are passed to 
the worshippers, who mark themselves on forehead, neck, arms, breast and back with 
the stripes of Siva. As these things are offeied first to the highest caste, and thence 
downward, many quarrels arise as to which families are the highest in rank. The 
priest gives each one a flower, which is placed behind the ear or in the coil of hair. 
The same process is next gone through to a flagstaff, standing in the middle of the 
courtyard ; and thirdly to a small brass image of PuUiar. Every morning or evening 
some of the more devout, wishing to atone for sin or to perform a work of merit, 
roll on their almost naked bodies around the temple, over the earth and stones ; the 
women, bowing and touching their hands on the ground, wipe their faces in the dust, 
rise and place their feet where the head touched before, fall forward again, and so 
measure their length around the temple. 

During the festival the ceremonies are repeated at noon, and the brass idol is taken 
out for a ride around the court of the temple. He is carefully fastened on the back 
of a large painted wooden rat or peacock, or some other animal — each day a different 
one — which is borne on the shoulders of men. At night— beginning at midnight and 
lasting till two o'clock in the morning — with torchlight and music, the god is given his 
ride around the outside of the temple. For twelve nights our rest has been entirely 
broken by the deafening horns, drums, and cymbals^ mingled with the shouts of the 
people and the explosion of various kinds of fireworks. All through these midnight 
festivals a troop of dancing-girls of the most abandoned character dance before the 
idol and the populace. 

The twelfth and last day of the feast was the great car-drawing day. By eight 
o'clock in the morning people on foot or in ox or horse-bandies began pouring in from 
all sides, until the lanes, roads and broad rice-fields on two sides of the temple 
swarmed with more than ten thousand people. The air grew blue with the smoke of 
hundreds of fires, where on every hand food was being cooked in the open air for the 
idol. Only the steam or odour is acceptable to the god, so the cooked rice is carried 
home, or given to the priests or to mendicants, which is considered a work of merit. The 
low caste people cannot be allowed even to enter the court of the temple and make their 
own offerings ; some high-caste person must carry the food in and present it for them, 
bringing it back afterwards to the donor. To the large temple-tank hundreds of people 
go to drink the muddy, stagnant holy waters ; wash away their sins by bathing their 
bodies ; and wash their clothes preparatory to making their ofterings. In the same 
tank the heated oxen stand, cooling their bodies and being washed by their owners. 

After a time the cavadies began to arrive. These are fantastic wooden frames 
decked with flowers, peacock-feathers and tinsel, carried on the head and shoulders 



28 



An Annual Feud. 




HINDUS BATHING. 



of the individual from his house to the 

temple, in performance of a vow in 

time of sickness. The bearer prepares 

for the ceremony by some days of 

fasting. He is accompanied by a 

band of music, and comes whirling and 

dancing as if possessed with a spirit. 

The people suppose him to be filled 

with the spirit of the god, and so to 

be specially holy ; but alas for the 

holiness of which this is a type ! A 

year ago a quarrel took place between 

a cavady bearer from Batticotta and 

one from Anikotty ; and it was rumoured that the quarrel would be renewed this 

year. In the middle of the festival shouts were heard, and thousands upon thousands 

of people left the temple and the idols and rushed to the scene of action. It was a 

stampede such as I have never before witnessed. Instantly, as it seemed, four hundred 

or more Batticotta men, seizing sticks from the nearest fences, began to assault about 

half as many Anikotty men, and before they could be separated several were severely 

wounded. These were brought bleeding to our dispensary, and my brother and a 

native Christian physician were left to undo the work which heathen passion had done. 

In the case of one poor man it was all in vain ; he died the next day. We have used 

this as a warning and a sermon in many of our talks with the young people, who admit 

at once that going to the temples and washing in sacred waters do not make the heart 

holy. The older heathen, however, do not seem troubled by what was done, but hope 

that the excitement will be twice as great next year. It is not strange that those who 

worship such cruel gods and goddesses should in a measure become like them. 

To return to the car-drawing : The huge old car on cumbrous wheels had been 
decorated with flowers and flags and cloth ; the small brass idol was placed within, 
and many Brahmans attended, to burn incense before it. Eighty men or more 
seized hold of the two thick ropes, and thus it was drawn around the temple, 
followed by rolling devotees. When half-way round it paused before a pile of a 
thousand cocoa-nuts, which one man had vowed to break with his right hand before the 
idol by throwing them one after another on a stone. This finished, the car returned 
to its place, and the people began to disperse. 

But what were our Christians doing during all this time ? Over thirty of the leading 
Christian workers from this and the neighbouring stations, by our invitation, met 



Good Seed Sown. 



29 



together at our house in the morning, and after a season of earnest prayer for God's 
help and blessing, they took bundles of tracts, handbills and books, and went out in 
various directions on the different roads and lanes leading from the temple, in order 
to meet and talk with the people on their return, and sell or give away tracts and 
books. Then we, with five prominent native Christians, took our stand on the veranda 
of the medical-room, which is just across the way from the temple, and where mats 
and benches had been arranged. We opened all the stops of our organ, and began 
singing praise to Christ in a strong, full chorus. Soon a crowd of from three to four 
hundred people gathered around us. Our method was to explain a verse of a lyric, 
and then sing ; then another verse and sing, and so on. We kept this up for four 
hours, a large and interested crowd being by us all the time. We noticed in our 
audience Brahmans, Sivite preachers, and the editor of a Sivite paper ; all listened 
respectfully without a particle of disturbance, and some faces here and there showed 
marked interest. Our book-stand near by was doing a good business in selling tracts 
and portions of the Bible ; and word came back from several companies that they had 
nearly sold out their tracts, and that more were wanted. 

Our workers were thoroughly aroused, and spoke and sang their very best. One 
good Christian from a neighbouring church, who had said in the morning that he did 
not think it was of much use to try this kind of work — the festival had gone on for a 
long time, and not much if anything had ever been done about it — now, talking to 
his audience, became so interested that he refused the offer of lunch ; and at night went 
away declaring that this was just the way to do, and that next year many Christians 
from all the stations must come, and we would have meetings on five or six sides. 
The Christians returned encouraged, and we could see that the effort had done them 
good, if no one else. All seemed surprised at the readiness with which the people 
bought religious books and tracts ; and many were seen reading them in companies 
under trees and in their bandies, on their way home. In all, during this one day, two 
thotisand nine hundred and fourteen tracts, small books, and portions of Scripture were sold 
by us and our helpers, and three thousand six hundred and eighteen were given away. 

May the seed sown by the wayside, with God's blessing, spring up and bring forth 
fruit to His glory ! 




A TAMIL " BOOK." 



CHAPTER VII. 

Hopeful Signs. 




Manepy, October T,ist, iSSl. 
HILE we long and pray and hope that God's Spirit may be poured out 
among us in an unusual manner, yet it seems more probable that the 
blessing will come quietly through the widespread and faithful teaching 
of the truth, and the inclining of more and more hearts to accept it. I 
confess that I find myself greatly perplexed to understand the mental processes of, for 
example, our older English-speaking school-boys. For a year, in day-school, 
Sabbath-school, and in private talks, they have heard the truth, and have understood 
it. They can tell the story of Christ's life nearly as well as I can. They have had 
the nature of prayer, the duty of faith and repentance, dearly explained. 

AVhy then do they not become Christians? They have not yet given up their old 
beliefs. These beliefs are ingrained into their literature, their history, their song, their 
every-day duty and thought. They say that, although we are right, there is much that 
is right with them also. They are bound to their friends by the strongest ties, and the 
fetters are riveted by caste. It is a terrible wrench to break away from all. 

All these things, and many more, bear on the probable future. Yet of one thing 
we are sure, that the steady, faithful, earnest teaching of God's own word in church 




Nicodemus in Ceylon. 



31 



and school, in public and private, must be followed 
by a steady growth of conscientiousness and love 
for truth throughout the community, and by a 
larger and larger number of individuals turning 
to God. The Gospel has all along in the 
past been moulding this whole community. 

Is it nothing that we have almost the whole 
educational work in our hands, that nearly 
every house is open to our visits and those 
of the catechists and Bible-women ; that the 
attendance at church and Sabbath-school is 
increasing ; that moonlightj village, and Sab- 
bath afternoon meetings are so largely attended "i 
All the educated men and women, and the 
older children in the schools, are ashamed of 
the ceremonies connected with the Sivite worship and the great festivals, and do not 
participate in them. All through the villages there are men and women who do not 
rub ashes or visit heathen temples, and many of these in their hearts worship the true 
God and try to serve Him, but, like Nicodemus, they fear to confess Him openly. 
Yet frequently such persons boldly confess on their death-beds that they are Christians, 
and we trust many names not enrolled on our church books will be found in the 
" Lamb's Book of Life." 

We rejoice and thank God for all this, and yet, with you, we are not satisiied, but 
we long with almost a painful earnestness for more to come to Christ. 



HINDUS WORSHIPPING AN IDOL. 



^ .;^«,^^ 9^"""®" ®r«^ 



JOHN in. 16, IN TAMIL. 




BRACELETS, ANKLETS, AND RINO. 




CHAPTER VIII. 
Mutthuchardie's Money-box. 

Manepy, Nirjember nth, iSSl. 
OULD 3'ou like to hear a story of what a Tamil boy did one Sabbath in 
church, and what came of it ? 

Some years ago, the native Christians of this mission in Jaffna, Ceylon, 
formed themselves into a missionary society for the purpose of sending 
teachers and preachers to the people of seven small islands lying west of Jaffna. 

A few Sabbaths ago, in Panditerippu, the native preacher was urging his people 
to give towards this society. Some of the congregation looked indifferent, thinking 
perhaps they had enough to do to support their own schools and church ; but one 
little boy, named Mutthuchardie, sitting close by his mother, was listening very atten- 
tively, and when he heard that there were many little children on these islands who 
had no schools, no kind teachers, no books, as he had — that, worst of all, they had 
no Sabbath-schools, no Bibles, and did not know of the Saviour whom he loved — 
. ^„ . he looked up quickly in his mother's face and whis- 
pered, " Oh, my money-box ! You said I might do 
whatever I pleased with it. Oh, mother ! give it, 
give it ! " The mother was astonished that her 
little boy had understood all the preacher had said. 
She now began to listen more carefully herself; and 




" A Little Child shall Lead Tiiem'. 



33 



every now and then, as if to emphasize 
the speaker's words, she felt a soft little 
pinch on her arm, and heird an eager 
voice close beside her whisper, " Give 
it, give it, mother." And, along with 
the words of the sermon, some other 
words, spoken long ago, kept coming 
to her mind: "Whosoever shall not 
receive the kingdom of God as a little 
child, he shall not enter therein." 

Tlie little bo)' had his request, for 
the next Sabbath, when the bag came 
a-roundj he dropped into it two little 
fists quite full of cents, half-cents, 
quarter- cents, and eighth-cents ; for we 
have such small coins liere, where so 
many people are poor and money is 
scarce. But, when the bag came to 
his mother, great was the child's sur- 
prise to see her quietly slip off her two 
gold bracelets from her arms and drop 
them both into the bag. They had 
come down to her from her mother and 
grandmother and were part of her 
marriage- portion^ and worth ^5. But 
the words of her only child had rung 
in her ears all the week, and she said 
to herself : " I also will give to God 
and His cause something precious." 

Now, as of old, the words of the 
prophet are true : " And a little child 
shall lead them." 

" And Jesus called a little child unto 
Him, and set him in the midst of them, 
And said. Verily I say unto you, except 
ye be converted and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." 





A CHILDREN'S HYMN IN THE TAMIL LANGUAGE. 
Subject : Praise to Christ who icas born in Bethlehem. 
CnoRus. 



3t± 



JS_'S_ 



-N iS N 



P=P 



Usi^i 



I Ul Iv. 



:N \ 



-s— iS-:- 



IB^ 



-?>— V— V— b''- 



2nd time. 



-7 '/ l^cr^ 



^i-.^^ 



I ,N s qiTi-^^^^r 



\ S I 



Sound of the Tamil xoords in English. 



Bet-tha-la-yel per-dn-tha-va-day 
P6t-te thu-thee man-a-may. en-num, 

Verse i. 
Sad-du-vat-thT-um par-tlit-thani-da 
Siil-du-\,i \al-la-var. ung-kay, 



Tharl-nii-ul-la tlii-vi-ul-til, 
Thal-li sik-Ua-la-nar. enn-kay, 

Verse 2 
Sing-kas-san-am vcet-te-duk-Uum 
Tlitr-van mm-tlian-ar. eng-kay 
Pang-kam-iit-la, pas-ut thod-de-leel 
Par-diit-the-diik-ker-ar. enij-kav. 




CHAPTER IX. 

The Sivite Preacher. 

Manepy, February -th, 
THINK our heavenly 
Father, when He allows 
us to feel peculiar trials 
and discouragements, 
sends also peculiar encouragements to 
counterbalance them. Such was your 
letter to me this morning, for, truly, I 
was weary in body and mind with the 
conflicts of a week which has been the 
hardest I have ever known in Jaffna. 
I think God knew I should need help, 
and so put all those loving, helpful 
words into your heart for me a month 
ago — another proof of His great, 
tender, ever-watchful care. I thank 
Him, over and over, with glad tears, 
for you and for loving Christian hearts 
who are praying for us and for Jaffna. 
We need your prayers more than 
ever. Just when in all our schools 
and villages there was unusual interest, 
and we seemed almost on the eve of a 
blessing, what should Satan do but 
raise up what the heathen call a learned 
man, a holy man, a great Sivite preacher, 
who is a most bigoted, bitter, and 




A HOLY MAN AMONG THE HINDUS. 



36 Sivite Objections Met. 

unceasing enemy of Christianity ? He has sprung up quite suddenly, like a mushroom 
in the night, and is going about the country breathing out blasphemies and misrepre- 
sentations of Christianity, and abuse of missionaries and Christians. Preaching is a 
new thing to the Sivites. Their priests never preach, their religion consists in forms 
and ceremonies, and knows nothing of spiritual worship or of edification. His plan of 
preaching he has copied from the missionaries. Because this is something new, and 
because he appeals to men's worst passions — pride, hatred, selfishness — he draws great 
crowds. I suppose he has preached ten or fifteen times in the last few weeks to 
audiences of from one to three hundred. So long as he attends to all the ceremonial 
purifications, bathes his body if he touches a low-caste man, eats neither fiesh nor salt, 
and can speak in high-flowing Tamil, which four-fifths of his audience cannot under- 
stand — so long as he does all this the people think he is a very great man, and the 
temple managers throw open their doors to him. 

This preacher has spoken twice in the Manepy temple. He began at seven in the 
evening and continued till nearly twelve o'clock — this is his custom. Do you wish to 
know what he said ? These are his principal points against Christianity : The God of 
the Christians is not omnipotent, for he took six days to make the world, when it 
might have been made in one. Jehovah is not omniscient, for He put Adam and Eve 
in the garden of Eden with Satan, and He ought to have known that they would sin: 
because He did not prevent their sinning. He is not all-powerful nor all-holy, and 
therefore Satan is stronger than God. Tne angels sinned, and fell from heaven : 
therefore heaven is a place of temptation and sin, and hell is the better place of the 
two. God is not all-good, because He saves only Christians. It is said that Christ 
came to bring peace to the earth ; but at His birth Herod killed thousands of infants, 
while He did nothing to prevent it, but ran away to Egypt to hide. 

You can imagine what an effect these and similar things would have upon a crowd 
of the low and ignorant at home. How much greater is the effect on the seething, 
ignorant, and unreasoning masses here ! His last talk was on Saturday night ; and on 
Sabbath morning we found our Sabbath-school boys full of his arguments. We 
thought that, as wise doctors, we should take the disease in hand at . once ; so, 
after hastily going over the lesson, we told them they might ask questions ; and for 
half an hour or longer we answered one after another, until they seemed to see that 
there was another and better view on all the points. We carried them with us in every 
step, and never left a point until they understood it. It was the same at Arnikotty, 
where we teach a Sabbath-school class at half-past ten o'clock, and at Navaly, where we 
teach one at three o'clock, in this way we met, in the course of the day, between 
forty and fifty upper-class boys whose minds are in a formative state, and who are 



\\\z^lh TJie Sivite Mistaken. n 

I I j] peculiarly susceptible of impressions. 

The next few days we visited some of 



our large English schools ; and, being 

A| prepared, we took up the Sivite 

', preacher's points one by one, and 

--^ ^7 answered them. We were surprised 

' to see how full they Avere of his sceptical 

teaching, and how " men love darkness 

v^/J , :^s^\, rather than light, because their deeds 

5 f^|^^ ^^ ^^ '^ are evil. 

We told them there were two powers 
1 _ — ^ I contending for their souls — good and 

c — ' '^^/^^!^ V ' \\ "*'^„- evil; that they might know which was 

~~'^- ~v ^^^ '- " good, because it was always unselfish, 

A MAN-EATER. ^nd the evil, because it was always 

selfish. We told them how much had been given and done for them^ freely and 
unselfishly by Christians, and asked if they could show a parallel in Sivism. We told 
them that the teacher who sent them away with new reverence and love for God, with 
new longings after a holy life, a determination to fight against sin, was their truest 
friend, and asked if they left the Sivite meetings with these feelings. We took up the 
great problem of why God permitted sin,- and tried to explain it as best we could, and 
show how it was better and grander for us to personally, freely, gladly choose the 
right and refuse the wrong, than to be mere machines compelled to do right without 
will or choice. We tried to meet the other points, also ; but it was a hard task, 
because the tide against us and Christianity was so strong. Think for yourself what it 
•would be to go into a school of one hundred, all but half-a-dozen of them strong 
Sivites, from Sivite homes, all bristling with objections, and whether your heart would 
not be faint and trembling. My sister was the strongest of us all. She has a 
wonderful way of winning the love and trust of the older boys, and in these days 
her whole soul has been in what she said ; and it was a strange sight to see tears 
glistening in the eyes of those who were almost men, as she pictured the grandeur 
of a life devoted to God, urging them to choose that life^ and live not for self but 
for Jesus. 

There was one cheering circumstance : the Sivite preacher had said among other 

things, " The missionaries do not really care for you ; they are not your true friends," &c. 

Over and over again, however, the teachers and the boys, and even bitter heathens, 

have assured us that he was mistaken ; that he did not know us; that everybody in 

4* 



38 



A Hio-Ji-caste Atidience. 



Manepy knows that we really love the people, and are their friends. I think God has 
blessed us in winning the confidence and love of this people. To His dear name be 
all the praise. I realize more than ever the importance of character to support our 
words, and I am resolved to be doubly careful in all my words and actions, that in 
everything I may honour Him. My sister says : "Our work for a few days has been 
in sucking the poison out of the veins of 'hose who have been bitten by the serpent ; 
and we must keep on, day by day , and week by week, until it is thoroughly done." 

We are planning to have some of the best speakers in Jaffna go round to the central 
points in the field and hold large open-air meetings, answering the Sivite's arguments. 
There is much work for us in the future, for we cannot know just what his movements 
may bring about, or whether others will join or copy him ; but if we will be true soldiers 
we must contest every inch of ground, and the sight 
of the enemy will only rouse us to fresh endeavour. 
We are on the winning side ; there is no fear of 
the result ; but the thing that troubles us is the 
harm that may come meanwhile to some of these 
boys and girls who are not wise enough to distin- 
guish the false from the true. 

Whether it was that by sucking the poison from 
others we have had a touch of it ourselves, or 
whether it was being out many days in the midday 
sun, when the thermometer runs up to 140° — 
whatever was the cause, last night and this morning 
',;,"'"'' I was feeling very tired, and, I confess, a little 

^, desponding; but your letter came to do me a 

world of good. 

THE BANYAN TREE. 

/Mtcr. 

I think this movement on the part of the Sivites is resulting in good to the 
Christians. It is stirring them up to be more prayerful and earnest, and to watch 
more carefully over their lives. I do not think they are at all affected by the arguments 
brought forward — they went all over the ground for themselves before they became 
Christians — but, with us, they are troubled for the results such preaching may have on 
the young. We arranged two meetings for the 6th and 7th. Two of our best native 
workers, men of recognized ability and learning, came for both nights. One meeting 
was held in Manepy, and one at Arnikotty. The total attendance was between two 
hundred and fifty and three hundred, a majority of whom were high-caste, educated 
people. The low-caste people — men women, and children — were, in great numbers, 





Dr. Poor. 

busy in the harvest fields, where the 
rice harvest has just begun, and where 
they worlc during the moonlight. So 
our audience was a thinking one of the 
higher classes. Two addresses in each 
meeting were candid, careful answers 
to questions ; the third gave some 
strong reasons in favour of Chris- 
tianity ; and the fourth was an earnest 
appeal to seek salvation and a Saviour 
now. 

We were much interested at these 
meetings in noting the line of argu- 
ment often followed by the native 
ministers. One of them, at one of the 
meetings, laying his hand on the Bible 
and addressing his audience, said to 
them, "Many of you do not know 
what is contained within the lids of 
this book, but you do know the lives 
of the missionaries who for so many 
years have gone out and in among 
you." He referred to the time when 
the cholera was prevalent in the peninsula, and asked his hearers to remember what 
happened at that time. He said, " Many of the people were panic-stricken and left 
the plague-smitten districts ; frequently the relatives of those who were ill fled and 
forsook them, leaving them to their fate. But what," he asked, " did the missionaries 
do at that time.-' Did they forsake those who were in such distress? By no means ; 
they ministered to the sick, they sat by the bedside of the dying, they buried the 
dead, they counted not their lives dear to them if so be they might render the 
necessary service. One of the missionaries, the Rev. Dr. Poor, after the most 
incessant and prolonged service to the sick, at the last fell a victim to the disease and 
died. His latest breath was spent in praising Chi'lst." The speaker asked, " Is it a 
good religion or a bad that can produce such a result as that?" 

This same Dr. Poor had been for some time stationed in the Manepy district. The 
speaker asked, " Is there a house in this district which Dr. Poor did not visit over 
and over again?" He told man.y touching incidents of this beloved missionary, who 



^L- 



GIRLS DRAWING WATER. 



40 The Sivitc's Labour in Vain. 

laboured in Jaffna for over forty years. Among other things he related how that on 
one occasion Dr. Poor had been out all day visiting in the villages, and when returning 
in the evening lost his way. He called to some one who was passing by and asked 
him if he would show him the way. The man went to get a torch, and when he 
returned found Dr. Poor on his knees, praying aloud for a blessing on Jaffna. The 
speaker asked, " Is it a good religion or a bad that can make a man forget his weari- 
ness and hunger in the earnestness of his desire for a blessing on the people of another 
race?" 

I'he speaker referred to the boarding schools, and said, " You feel quite safe in 
allowing your daughters to be under the care of the missionaries, but would you trust 
your daughters to the care of a Brahmin ? You know you would not, not even for a 
single night. Is it a good religion or a bad that can make men moral and trustworthy ? 
You always trust the word of a missionary, but you do not trust each other. When 
you go on a journey, you often prefer to leave your jewellery with the missionary 
rather than with your own relatives. Is it a good religion or a bad that can make men 
truthful and honest? Have we not before our eyes the proof that Christianity has the 
power to do what Hinduism and Buddhism have shown themselves unable to do, to 
change the heart and to make the man a new creature ? " The native minister 
continued for some time in this strain, and his words, appealing directly to things 
which all knew, produced a great efifect. 

On account of the harvest, we shall delay further meetings till the new moon. 
People who would not otherwise come may perhaps be attracted to hear objections 
answered, and so be brought under the influence of earnest appeals on behalf of the 
truth. Will you not pray that the result may be a new awakening in religious matters, 
and a real turning to God? Oh, that He would make the wrath of man to praise Him 
by bringing many new souls into the kingdom of His dear Son ! 

March i8. — I think God has heard our prayer. Our meetings seem to have affected 
the sober-minded people, and the temple manager has said that he will not invite the 
Sivite preacher to speak again ; that he only deals in abuse, and that the missionaries 
are the true friends of the people, and ought not to be disturbed in their good work, 
though they may be wrong in their religion. One boy who has tried to induce others 
to stay away from Sabbath-school, came yesterday to say he had done wrong, and 
he was very sorry. 

Best of all, the children have been roused to work for Jesus. Last week several 
came to us privately, asking us to kneel down and pray with them for their class- 
mates, who, they feared, were being drawn away from Christ. We had a number of 
httle seasons of private prayer with them. Last Sabbath, in the afternoon, the 



Child-zvorkers fo7' Christ. 



4t 



children prayed specially for their friends ; and at four o'clock three little companies, 
of their own accord, went into the villages to hold children's meetings. One company 
had eighteen, and another twenty-four children, as an audience. They came back 
very much encouraged. I felt that Jesus here, as of old, had taken a child and set 
him in the midst, and was telling us to be more child-like, earnest, hopeful ; and I 
remembered that other Bible saying, " If these should hold their peace, the very stones 
would cry out." 

Oh, that our lives and words may more clearly ring out the glad cry,," Hosanna I 
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " 





CHAPTER X. 

Little Thankam. 

Manepy, April 28//;, 18S2. 

ID you ever see an idol temple, and a 
great many people boiling rice for the 
This is just what we see every 
day in Ceylon. 

Just across the road from our home here in Manepy stands a large idol temple 
dedicated to the god Pulliar. This god has the head of an elephant. He is called 
the god of wisdom, and when heathen mothers take their children to school, they 
always bring them first to an image of this elephant-god, that he may give wisdom to 
the child and make it a good scholar. This is the first god which a great many 
children are taught to worship. What a pity that they do not know of Jesus, the 
friend of little children ! 

In this temple there is a man called a Pandahdam, wliose business is to bathe the 
stone and brass images with milk, cocoanut water, and perfumes daily. He also 
receives offerings presented to the god. Now this man has one little daughter, and it 
is of her that I want to tell you. Her name is Thankam Mutthu, or Thankam " for 
short." The meaning of the name is Gold-pearl, and the child deserves the name, for 
she is the head scholar among sixty girls in our station girls' day-school. Since she 
began to come to school she has regularly attended the Sabbath-school, and learned 
many Christian hymns and Bible verses. Last Christmas, when the Sabbath-school 
children were examined, she was one of three girls who could say the Golden texts for the 
whole year, without a mistake. How many children in the home land could do that ? 
She received a prize — a Tamil New Testament— from the Christmas Tree. When she 
first came to school she used to have some sacred ashes, the marks of the heathen god, 
rubbed on her forehead, but she left that off after a time, and she studied the Bible so 
well that she could repeat the whole of the fifth chapter of Matthew without prompting, 

Thankam's Sabbath-school teacher — a very lovely native Christian woman — took a 
great interest in the little girl ; and Thankam would steal into her house sometimes 



A Brave Child. 43 

and beg her to pray with her and teach her how to serve Jesus. She feared to let her 
father and mother know of these visits. They wanted that she should learn to read, but 
they did not want her to become a Christian. They despise the Christians, and con- 
sider them polluted because they partake of the Lord's Supper with the low-caste 
people who have joined the church. They were so very particular that, when 
Thankam came home from school, both at noon and at night, they would not let 
her come into the house till she had bathed her whole body at the well. They were 
afraid she might have touched a low-caste or a Christian child during the day, 
and so would defile the house. 

As Thankam was on her way to school one morning, she called to see her Sabbath- 
school teacher. While she was there she said : 

"I have found a beautiful verse; it says, ' When my father and my mother forsake 
me, then the Lord will take me up.' That means me, doesn't it ? " 

Poor child ! she did not know how soon her courage would be put to the test. Her 
father had seen her go into a Christian house. He hurried to the gate and called out, 
loudly and angrily : 

" Thankam, Thankam, come to me." 

Thankam looked out and saw him cutting a long switch from the hedge. He 
seemed to be in a terrible passion, and was uttering the worst kind of threats and 
abuse. 

The poor frightened child clung to her teacher, and the teacher went out and begged 
that he would not whip the child ; but it did no good. He grew more and more 
angry every moment, and nothing could soothe him. He dragged the child out into 
the road and there he whipped her very cruelly. The women and children who were 
standing near could not help weeping as they saw him ; they all felt very sad as the 
little girl went slowly away, and they knew not what would become of her. 

For a whole long month Thankam's father and mother kept her shut up in the 
house, and no Christian was allowed to see her or speak to her. How I wearied to 
see the dear little face ! But it was of no use; to try to see her would only have 
made her parents angry and made Thankam suffer more ; so we and her Sabbath- 
school teacher who loved her, and the Christian girls in the day-school, told Jesus all 
about it and asked Him to help her. We knew that He could and would. 

After a time the father and mother said they would let her come back to school if 
she would rub ashes and promise not to be a Christian ; but Jesus must have helped 
her, for she would not promise. She cried so much that at last her father and mother 
relented and said, "Why should we make our only daughter miserable?" So they 
allowed her to return without making any conditions. 



44 



Thankain as Pupil-teacJier. 



You would have hardly known her when she came ; she looked half starved and so 
sad ; but as soon as she found herself among us you ought to have seen her face 
shine with joy ! From that time blessings seem to have followed the brave little 
girl, and she has now become a pupil- teacher in the station school. 

Will you not pray for the child who begged so hard to come to us, and for the 
father and mother who are serving Satan so blindly ? 




PULLIAR, THE GOD OF WtSDOM. 




CHAPTER Xr. 

Second Year's Experience 

AT THE Great Heathen Festival. 

Manepy, May loth, 1882. 



ARLY in 
the morning 
SftmTiai our tent 
had been pitched 
in our compound 
very near the temple ; an awning had 
been put up before the veranda of the 
medical-rooms, comfortable seats pro- 
vided, and two bookstands had been 
arranged, giving us in all four preaching- 
places. At nine o'clock in the morning 
about twenty Christians gathered together 
at our house, and after prayer for God's 
blessing, they took packages of tracts, 
Bible portions, &c., and went out a mile 
or more on the different roads to begin 
their day's work. My brother, with 
several helpers, took charge of the book- 
stands and the supply of the sellers ; my 
sister, with a chorus of twenty children 
and three speakers, took the tent ; while 
the other workers and singers came with 
me to the medical veranda. 

At a few minutes after nine we were all 
ready, and made two openings in our 
hedge to admit the people, who had begun 
to arrive in large numbers. Immediately 
from fifty to a hundred people came into 
each place ; but we had not spoken or 




HINDUS BATHING AND WORSHIPPING MUD IDOLS. 



46 The Heathen Festival Declining. 

sung many minutes before we noticed a commotion in the road. A few bitter Sivites 
had collected, and, placing themselves in each opening in the hedge, began to sing 
and shout at the top of their voices, at the same time declaring that no one should go 
through or enter our yard. At my side of the compound they seated a number of 
Sivites right across the opening, and at the other side they filled the gap with thorns. 

Soon a crowd of hundreds of persons had collected at each place, attracted by the 
disturbance, and all the more anxious to come in because they were forcibly prevented. 
Without appearing to notice them, and going right on with our singing, we called our 
coolies and said, " Open six places immediately in the hedge." It was done, and 
our opposers seemed rather non-plussed, for they saw that this could go on indefinitely, 
and that we would cut down the whole hedge rather than give up. There might be a 
handful of men who would sit all day in the burning sand to stop a gap, but it would 
need a thousand to encircle a whole compound. 

Listeners began to come through the new entrances, and after a little while the 
whole crowd which had collected broke away in a body and came pouring in upon us. 
From that time onward we spoke and sang without ceasing to solid audiences of from 
two to four hundred people. It was very noticeable that they stayed longer and 
listened better than last year. They enjoyed the speaking and singing, and seemed 
in no hurry to go. I was also struck with the fact that they were not Manepy people. 
They were from the islands and distant villages. I saw almost no faces in the 
audience that I had seen before, and perhaps many present heard something of the 
gospel for the first time. There was very little disturbance. The general feeling 
toward us seemed to be a very kind one. I knew they liked what we said ; and as we 
had opened our yard, they gladly availed themselves of it, sitting under the beautiful 
trees, and thanking us for the shade from the scorching rays of the sun. This insured us 
good audiences, and our colporteurs had plenty of work visiting and speaking with them. 

It is estimated by our workers that one-third of the people did not go to the temple 
to worship at all, but spent the time with us in the compound. The income of the 
temple was very small this year — not as large as last year. A rehable man gave me 
the various items, and the whole came to less than Rs. 140, the total gifts of ten 
thousand people ; while the single Christian church of Batticotta raised at the thank- 
offering meeting Rs. 180. Our workers are quite jubilant over the day, and say that, 
if we have two or three more tents and preaching-places next year, we shall absorb a 
large share of the festival, and many people who appear to be coming to a heathen 
festival will really be coming to a gospel meeting. 

I want to tell you what gave me the most pleasure in this day's experience ; it was 
the way the school-children from six different schools came voluntarily to help us sing. 



A Voluntary Choir. 

I wish you could have heard their clear young voices ring out the 
words, and have seen the interest in the faces of those large 
audiences, many of whom were listening to those sweet Christian 
songs for the first time. Daring those long five hours some of 
■the workers became tired, and asked to be relieved ; but the 
singing children, with few exceptions, stayed by to the last, and 
their bright faces, so eager and willing, were an inspiration to us. 
At the close they came and said, " Oh, Amma, it has been a happy 
day." Tliey were having their first taste of working for Christ, 
and for those whom He loves. Many of them were from heathen 
families, and two years ago would have worshipped idols them- 
selves. Some of them were children of the Fandahdams, who 
were that very day offering incense to the idol god. These and 
other children have been severely beaten for not going to temples, and they know that 
they may be again ; but " none of these things move them." The love of Christ has 
made them brave and strong. 

I know that the Good Shepherd will care for them through the rough way, and 
bring them into His fold at last. Dear friends at home, pray for these boys and girls 
that they may be faithful, and for the hundreds of other boys and girls who have not 
yet given their hearts to Christ. 




A TAMIL GIRL 






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CHAPTER XII. 

A Brief Visit to the Pulnet Hills. 

Pulney Hills, South India, June 2'^th, 1S82. 

iET me tell you, first of all, about the annual meeting of the Native 
Missionary Society, and a concert of Christian songs and hymns in the 
Tamil language. Both were held on the same day — the ist of June — 
at Batticotta Church, the largest one in North Ceylon. All the morning 
the church and the mission compounds were gay with the arrival of crowds of happy 
people in hackeries, horse- bandies, ox-bandies, and on foot. The men were dressed 
in flowing white and the women in gay-coloured robes, and there were a great many 
little children. These, with the boarding-school girls all in white like vestal virgins, 
and the young men from the Jaffna College with the unmistakable wide-awake air 
peculiar to college-boys, made a very pretty picture. 

It was an all-day meeting, and both the forenoon and afternoon sessions were full of 
interest. The audience was a fine one — over six hundred men, four hundred women, 
and several hundred children. As I sat on the platform, to play the organ, I had a 
good view of their faces, and a more intelligent gathering of people I never saw. Of 
the one thousand and twelve communicants in this mission there are only about thirty 
who cannot read. Most of the audience had been through the higher schools, and 
were well educated. This Native Missionary Society, which carries on work in the 
neighbouring islands, has been officered and managed by natives for the past thirty 
years. It is probably the oldest missionary society in Ceylon or India which has been 
supported and conducted by native Christians for so long a period. For the past year 
the funds raised, mostly from native sources, amounted to Rs. 872.13. On this day the 
collection came to Rs. 150. The reports of work done in the islands during the year 
by one pastor, one catechist, and several day-school teachers, were encouraging. A 
fine large map, twelve by sixteen feet, of the seven islands, the field of the society, 
drawn by the secretary and hung before the audience, was an appeal through the eye 



A Native Missionary Society. 49 

to the heart. The addresses by the four native speakers were very good : and those 
by Rev. S. W. Howland, of Oodooville, and Rev. J. C. Chandler, of the Madura 
Mission, were specially interesting. At the afternoon session the Lord's Supper was 
administered. 

As the concert was to be on the same evening, about two-thirds of the people 
stayed to attend, and the native Christians of the Batticotta Church most kindly and 
generously provided for all an abundant meal of rice and curry. It was their own 
plan, carried out with true hospitality, and with the putting aside of caste pre- 
judices, which was a real triumph of grace. In the meantime, bandies from all 
directions, and crowds of people, began to arrive for the concert. The church was 
brilliantly lighted ; the organs and choirs of singers were arranged in the centre^, and 
the rest of the large church was filled with every available seat that could be obtained 
within a circle of three miles. The people poured in until every seat and every inch 
of standing-room was taken, and then they overflowed into the road. More than two 
thousand people were present. The singers, in all, numbered over one hundred, being- 
choirs from the two girls' boarding-schools, the training-school, and the Jaffna College, 
with some little children from Manepy and Oodooville day-schools, vvho sang some 
songs specially adapted for infant voices. For instruments we had two organs, played 
by the Rev. Mr. Chandler and myself, three violins, one flute, bagpipes (native make), 
drum, and cymbals. When all the instruments and all the voices came in on the 
four chorus pieces it was very stirring. There were no failures, and everything passed 
off better than I expected. The little children from Manepy sang out as sweetly and 
clearly as little bells, and were repeatedly cheered by the audience. The thirteenth 
lyric, sung by three tiny boys between six and seven years old, with two older boarding- 
school girls from Oodooville, and a violin accompaniment played by a boy about 
eleven, was very prettily rendered. This hymn represented a conversation between a 
mother and child about the slaying of the infants by Herod and the escape of Christ 
into Egypt. The tenth lyric, which was very long, more like an oratorio, and 
contained twenty-four different movements or tunes in four different keys, was sung by 
the students of Jaffna College. The audience was very quiet and attentive through- 
out, and we felt that they spent an enjoyable and profitable evening. To the 
multitude of heathen present a pleasant and attractive phase of Christianity was pre- 
sented, and the sweet story of Jesus told in song could not fail to open a door in some 
hearts. 

The same evening we, with Mr. Chandler and his singers, went on board the boat 
for India. At our last helpers' meeting in Manepy, when they knew we were going 
to be absent from them for a little time, instead of being discouraged, ihey gathered 



50 



In India. 



around us, and said : " We will do our very best when you are gone. We will keep 
up the moonlight meetings and the school-work just as it is going on now, and you 
will find everything all right when you come back." We have had some very good 
letters from them since we reached the Pulney Hills. We landed at Negapatan, in 
India, about noon on the following day, and left in the six o'clock train. Train ! 
Was it not grand to feel one's self flying away, propelled by steam once more ! It was 
a beautiful moonlight night, such as only those in the tropics know, and I sat hour 
after hour watching, as we flew on and on past trees, and fields, and towns, intoxicated 
by the swift motion, and the wild, free, glad feeling which it brought, as if some heavy 
burden had been dropped — an anchor lifted, a cage-door opened, and I, a white- 
winged ship or a bird flying before the wind. In the morning we found ourselves 
passing through an interesting country. I could hardly realize that I was in the great 
country of India — this strange, this storied land. 

Coming up through the hot plains of India, what a joy it was to catch sight of the 
glorious mountains, towering up between seven and eight thousand feet, and to think 




THING-Pl.ACE. 



52 



Moimtaiii Forests. 




GOING UP THE MOUNTAIN. 



These Indian mountains ascend almost perpendicularly. We were carried up, as the 
custom is, in chairs borne upon the shoulders of four coolies. They go, in a zig-zag 
path, right up the side of the mountain, the whole length of which, from base to top, 
is twelve miles. We started from the foot at about four o'clock in the morning. 

How delightful it was to hear again the sound of roaring mountain brooks dashing 
over the stones ; and how good the pure, cold water tasted ! What a luxury ! I had 
forgotten that water could be so cool, or taste so refreshing. 

How can I describe to you the delights of that cool, misty morning? The fresh 
mountain air fanned our brows. The birds overhead, as if in rivalry to the singing 
brooks, broke out in melody : every litde throat seemed bursting with song. 'I he 
mountain-tops loomed up majestic and mysterious in the mist. 

Now we came into the heart of the jungle, and great forest trees, many of them 
entirely strange to me, stretched out their large arms over us, their stateliness relieved 
by the many kinds of creepers that in tropical luxuriance ran and clambered every- 
where, makiHg the thickets dense and shady; and underneath I spied the most 
beautiful kinds of ferns. They say there are eighty different varieties of ferns 






]n these woods. Strangest of all, 

to me, were the huge tree-ferns 

tossing their giant plumes high in 

the air. 

Nature here constantly 
fills me with wonder at 
her lavishness. There 
were many wild-fiowers. 
I began to count, and 
before we reached the 
top I had counted over 
fifty different varieties 
and kmds Many of them were entirely new to me, and 
very curious. Others were those which I had been 
accustomed to see growing in hot-houses, but now for 
the first time saw growing wild — begonias ; heliotrope ; 
every variety of geraniums; roses, white, climbing, and 
yellow , and great white lilies. 
Here, on the very summit of the mountain, our mission has 
a home, a little cottage, and from the front veranda we can 
look away down upon the plains— seven thousand feet. It is 
a grand sight to see the clouds gathering and rising below us, 
and the lightning, in a storm, glittering and flashing at our 
feet, and we here, high and calm above it all. The sunlight 
gilding t-he mountain tops about us, and the play of sunlight 
and shadow on their slopes, is very charming. Below us, to 
the north, and only a few rods away, the ripples are laughing 
and sparkling on a charming lake three miles in circumference, 
where we mean to have a boat-ride soon. To the south-west 
IS a beautiful cascade, that goes winding down the mountain- 
side — a stream of molten silver. At one place it dashes over 
a precipice of a thousand feet, and falls in feathery spray at the foot. In the 
midst of this grandeur, and sublimity, and beauty, one seems to come very 
near to God, and to be filled with adoration at the thought of His power, and 
wisdom, and love. 



CHAPTER Xlir. 





A HEATHEN FAMILY. 



A Contrast. 

Manepy, January 14///, lS>83. 
HREE years ago we lan- 
ded in Jaffna. Three 
very short years, and 
yet as I look back on 
them the retrospect seems full of 
encouragement. " These anniver- 
sary days are not like tombstones 
of the buried past, but like mile- 
stones, marked on the other side, 
' so much nearer the goal,' or like 
triumphal columns, trophies of 
victory 'won for Jesus.' " 
Shall I tell you some of the changes which have taken place in Manepy and 
Panditerippu, the fields under our immediate care, in these three years, as they have 
come to my mind this morning } 

Three years ago we had a station Sunday School of 100 scholars and 5 teachers. 
Now we have 395 scholars on the roll, 200 average attendance, and 21 teachers and 
officers. There is now a native pastor, and our station church annual contributions 
have increased Rs. 257, besides which the church has been furnished with 10 seats, 
9 lamps, new mats, &c., by its members. We have a fine new building for the 
Station Boys' English High School, costing Rs. 350, also a new building for the 
Station Girls' School, and an additional teacher, and there are more children in each. 
In two private schools near the station, numbering together i6o pupils, no Bible 
lessons were taught three years ago. But now the Bible lessons are regularly taught 
in them, both on week-days and Sundays. Three years ago, at Arnikotty, our Tamil 
Boys' School was nearly dead, and a large heathen Anglo-vernacular School had 
usurped its place. Now we have regained our footing, and have a large Anglo- 
vernacular School, with 5 teachers and 125 boys who are taught Bible lessons, and are 
brought to the Sunday School. 



Figures of Progress. 55 

A new girls' school of 60 children has been organized at Suthumalay, for which a 
new school building was erected and furnished. We also have a new building for the 
Arnikotty Girls' School. We have an additional teacher at the Arnikotty South 
Mixed School, and 28 more scholars. The Bible is taught in the Arnikotty West 
School of 68 children, where it was not three years ago. In Navaly Station Girls' 
School we have an additional teacher and 36 new scholars. The Navaly Church 
building has been finished and repaired, and new seats and mats added, at a cost of 
Rs. 162. We have there a Sunday School of about 175 average attendance, against 
75 three years ago. 

In North Navaly we have a new Girls' School, with new building and furniture, and 
60 pupils. We have a similar Girls' School with new building and furniture, at 
Santillipay. A compound has also been bought there, and a bungalow erected at a 
cost of Rs. 265. A new catechist is stationed there, who conducts regular Sabbath 
and week-day services, and superintends a Sabbath School with an average attendance 
of 50. 

At Panditerippu Station, the average attendance at Sunday School is increased by 
25. The church building has been repaired and the floor relaid at a cost of Rs. 721, 
also new seats and a new pulpit introduced at a cost of Rs. 75. In the Panditerippu 
Station English Boys' School we have an additional teacher, and a much more 
flourishing school than three years ago. In the Sirruverlan School we have a new 
building, an additional teacher, and 31 new scholars. 

To sum up in a few words, we have under our care 3 more day-schools, total 
27; 14 more teachers, including sewing teachers, total 57; 395 more pupils, total 
1865. The above does not include two private schools before mentioned, which 
also co-operate with us. The Bible lesson is taught in seven schools where it was 
not taught three years ago. At the close of last year, a most carefully conducted 
review Bible-examination showed 1565 scholars examined, and the total of Bible 
verses recited from memory 8831, and of questions of various catechisms 42,736. We 
have now in • our Sabbath Schools 94 teachers, and 1529 pupils on the list, a gain 
of 881 over three years ago. In the annual review examination on the International 
Sunday-school Lessons, held in last December, 244 pupils recited the golden texts for 
the whole year, 27 for three quarters, 49 for two quarters, and 125 for one quarter. 
Our church membership has increased 40, total 190. The contributions of the three 
churches in our field were Rs. 454 more this year than three years ago. 

We have sent from our field to the Jaffna College, Training School, Girls' Boarding 
Schools, and other higher institutions of learning, 49 young men, 38 young women. 
Many of these decided to give themselves to Christ while in our day and Sabbath 




A CHRISTIAN FAMILY : THE KENWAR AND KENWARANI, OF KAPARTHALA, AND THEIR BOYS. 



A Hopeful Future. 



57 



schools, and 54 of them have already joined the churches connected with these higher 
schools, or have applied for church membership. 757 Bible portions in Tamil, and 
about 50 New Testaments in English, were bought from us by the day and Sunday- 
school children. Many more were bought from the depository, besides several 
hundreds given out as Christmas rewards. 468 religious tracts were sold, and 5565 
tracts and 1514 handbills distributed during the past year. Three years ago we had 

only 4 Bible-women, now we have 9. They 
report having visited 409 houses regularly 
during the past year, besides teaching Bible 
lessons, sewing, and singing to the girls in 
nine day-schools, and holding many cottage 
meetings. They are teaching 125 women 
I grown girls in their homes to read 
Bible. These have memorized alto- 
gether, during the year, 2070 
Bible verses, 209 hymns, and 
1458 questions, which must have 
given them employment and food 
thought in many otherwise vacant or 
unhappy hours. Of these women and 
:1s, 39 have begun to pray to Christ, and, 
we hope, to love Him. If you read between 
the lines in these statistics, if you try to 
make the facts real in your mind, 1 think you 
will be encouraged, as we are, and hopeful and 
prayerful about the future. 






CHAPTER XIV. 
Thipd Year's Experience 

AT THE GREAT HeATHEN FESTIVAL. 

Manepy, April lyh, 1883. 

HIS is the day aftei 
the great car-draw- 
ing day and temple 
festival; and perhaps 
you would like to hear about it 
and our meetings on that day. 

We had hoped some of the 
missionaries would be with us 
and assist this year, but as it was 
the day of the quarterly business 
meeting they were not able to 
come. Even our brother, called 
to America by our dear father's 
illness, was not with us, but we 
were not alone, for the Elder 
Brother was with us, and we 
seemed to feel His presence all 
the day, and He made good His 
promise, '' I will never leave 
thee." About 30 of the leading 
Christians from our own and 
various other stations came to- 
gether in the morning to organize into companies for work. Some came with us by 
invitation to the tent and preaching pandal, others went to book-stands, and others 
went out a mile or so on the roads as last year. 

Also about 40 children from our day schools, whom we had been specially preparing 
for this occasion, came early with hymn-books and bright faces. After refreshment 



THE CAR OF JUGGERNATH. 



No Opposition. 



59 




BRAHMAN FAKIR ENGAGED IN MEDITATION. 



and prayer we all began work at lo a.m. My sister went to 

the tent, and I to the medical veranda, where a large pandal 

had been erected and seats provided. Our children's voices, 

joining in a bright ringing hymn accompanied by organ, 

violin and cymbals, soon brought us large audiences. 

We had eight of the best speakers we could get in 
Jaffna, four with each of us, and they did indeed 
speak well, so simply and earnestly, relieved every 
little while by the children echoing their words in 
some appropriate song. 

This year — althougli there had been some talk 
beforehand that there would be . opposition, that 
Sapapathipullai the Sivite preacher would be present 
to speak, that heathen tracts would be distributed, 
that they would not let any one enter our yard, that 
they would dispute at our meetings — although there 
had been some such floating talk and some articles published in Sivite newspapers 
to that effect, yet God must have been specially with us, for none of all these things 
happened, and we had altogether quieter and better meetings than last year. No one 
tried to hinder people from coming, or to disturb our meetings, but people came in large 
numbers and stayed longer and listened better and went away more quietly than last 
year. Many stayed from an hour to an hour and a half, and even longer. Many 
thousands of people found a refuge from the burning sun in our veranda, tent, and 
under the large shade trees, and some spoke gratefully to us for allowing them the 
privilege. Thus we won much good feeling and many seemed to enjoy our meetings, 
and I hope some carried away real good. 

On the white wall of the veranda we had painted in Tamil in large scarlet letters 
these verses : " God is love'' " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
" There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenieth." " Come unto Me, and I will 
give you rest." Those who came from a distance toward the meeting seemed struck 
with these verses shining out from the white wall, illuminated by the noon-day sun. 
They would begin to read, and I could see their lips move and their eyes follow the 
lines as they read one and another, and they would come nearer and look inquiringly at 
the speakers as if to say, " Can you explain these ? " And the speakers explained 
them, weaving all they had to say about them, and pointing to them and reading them 
over and over again. Thus they served a second purpose of which we had not 
thought when having them written — they unified all the addresses. These four 



6o A Success/ill Day. 

verses were silent preachers of repentance, purity, peace, and love to thousands 
during the day ; surely they must be remembered in some hearts. Our little 
singers did beautifully ; they sang off and on for five hours, their little throats 
growing tired at last, but their faces still shining. 

Mr. Twynam, the English Government Agent of this province, came on from town in 
the afternoon to see if all was quiet, and if the headmen were at hand and preserv- 
incf order ; for there are disturbances among the people at such large festivals ; and 
I think our opening our ground; and calling in so many of the people, thereby 
lessenino' the crowd about the temple, has tended to preserve quiet and to prevent 
fights. 

He drove slowly past the temple just at the time when they were drawing the 
car, and instead of the people opposing his passing, to our astonishment hundreds 
upon hundreds forsook the idol car to walk after his carriage, a mark of their high 
respect for him, and their really small reverence for or faith in the idol. 

Mr. Twynam sent his salams to us, said he was glad we were having meetings, and 
told us to go on, and all the headmen heard him say so. He asked to hear my 
little folks sing, so I sent fifteen or so of my station school children in the care of a 
pastor to him. The great crowd which was about him was attracted by the sound 
of the violin, cymbals, and the children's voices, and thus my little folks held for 
a quarter of an hour the largest service of Christian song during the day, with the 
highly respected Government Agent as the centre. We thank God for the success 
of the day, and pray that He may bless all that passed to the good of some of the 
many who were present. 




^^^iCiLk' 



WORSHIPPING KALI. 




A STREET IN CEYLON LINED WITH TAMARIND, COCOANUT, AND OTHER TREES. 



CHAPTER XV. 




A Letter from a Christmas Tree. 

Manepy, December zyh, 1883. 
BEAR CHILDREN, — I am a Christmas tree which you helped to plant in 
Santillipay. 

I am not a spruce-tree such as you use in your country, as I am told, 
but a tamarind-tree with very beautiful soft foliage like a fern^ and a very 
valuable and plentiful acid fruit. A tamarind-tree is one of the largest kind of trees m 
this country, and one of the most valuable ; a full-grown tree sometimes produces ;£i 
worth of fruit in a year. But a tamarind Christmas tree produces still more valuable 
fruit, for the toys with which I am covered delight a hundred little eyes, and the 
Tamil Bibles and Scripture portions and hymn-books will feed the heart. 

I grew in the mission compound in Santillipay, and after the roof of the large 
preaching bungalow was all lined by the teachers and native Christians with white 
cloth, and after a beautiful arch of strung red and white oleander blossoms was 
erected and other decorations put up, I was brought in and planted. Immediately the 



62 Christinas at the Mission-school. 

children brought more flowers, hraes, plantain fruits, &c., to decorate me. Then the 
gifts sent by you, and prepared by the missionary ladies with the name of the future 
owner written on each, were hung upon me, as well as lots of little bags full of popcorn, 
roast peas, roast rice, native sugar and sweet cakes. These were brought and hung till 
my branches were bending down with the heavy load. But the merry shouts of the 
children helped me to keep up a stout heart and not give way. 

Then the missionary ladies arrived, and to their surprise they were met by a large 
company of people, and a native band of music consisting of five instruments, two 
flutes, large and small, a kind of native bagpipe, a drum, and cymbals. 

A canopy of red cloth decorated with flowers was carried over the heads of the 
missionary ladies, rose water from silver vases was sprinkled over them, and flowers, 
two large baskets full, were strewn before them. This was all arranged as a pleasant 
surprise by the people, to show their goodwill and love. Was it not a great change 
from the year before last, when at some moonligiit meetings the missionary ladies and 
Christians were stoned, the fruit-trees belonging to a Christian family robbed, and theit 
fowls killed ? At that time all the boys in the place were studying in a Sivite school in 
which the secular lessons were taught on the Sabbath as well as on week-days, and where 
the students were taught to mock at Christianity. Now there is a Mission-school 
here with 120 children, where the Bible lessons and Christian hymns are daily taught, 
and the children are brought on the Sabbath to Sabbath school and church service. 

These children were all present around me, and they were seated on ola mats 
spread on the floor. They were all dressed in their best clothes, and, as bright colours 
are much liked by the people, they looked like a flower garden. Their little baby 
brothers and sisters came also, and many of the fathers and mothers as well. 
These were all seated around the four sides of the building. The boys and girls 
were prepared with many dialogues, recitations, compositions, &c., appropriate to 
the occasion, in English and Tamil, all of which they recited very well, I thought. 
Some were about Christ, His birth. His teachings, &c., and one boy in the midst of 
his address opened the Bible and read a part of the Sermon on the Mount, and all 
the heathen present listened with .ittention to those benutiful and lofty words. There 
was much singing. Miss Leitch had her " American baby organ " with her, and also a 
part of the Manepy children's choir with violin and cymbals. 

Then several persons present gave addresses. After this the presents were 
distributed. Quite a number of boys and girls whose names were found on the " roll 
of honour," because they had recited perfectly the 145 Bible verses, twelve hymns and 
lyrics, and fifty-two golden texts, which formed the Bible lesson for the year, as well 
as shown a perfect or nearly perfect Sunday School attendance, received prizes of 



Fate of t lie Christinas Tree. 



63 



New Testaments or hymn books. Have any of you little girls and boys to whom I 
write done as well as they, and do you stand on the roll of honour ? 

After the meeting all the men, women, and children escorted the missionary 
ladies half a mile on foot toward their home, walking in procession and headed by 
music. 

My work is done. A coolie has come to cut me up for firewood for the catechist's 
family, so in death as in life, I am, 

Your faithful 

Christmas Tree. 




A VIEW IN CEYLON. 




A BANYAN TREE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 




The Week of Prayer 

Manepy, January \^h, 18S4. 
IKE the banyan tree, the Kingdom of Christ seems to be growing and 
extending here, taking deeper root dovvmvard, and sending new shoots 
upward. 

We were much encouraged this year during the week of prayer. The 
English-speaking children from our large English schools at Manepy and Arnikotty 
came into the meetings, not reluctantly as last year, but always witli a glad rush. On 
the last day, after several addresses, in which they were urged t(i decide for Christ now, 
they were asked how many wished to give their hearts to God at the beginning ot 
the new year, and many hands were held up. 

'l"he Christians took new courage, and in their evening meeting said, " Let us save 
the children, and in ten or fifteen years, instead of one or two hundred Christians in 
this field, there will be thousands." The Christians consecrated themselves anew to 



Wanted — Reapers. 



65 



Christ's service with earnest prayers and tears, and we are looking for a blessing on 
the work this coming year. We distributed during the past year twenty-four copies 
of D. L. Moody's book of sermons, and a large number of his tracts, and we see they 
are having an excellent effect. We expect to have the book translated into Tamil, and 
printed before next Christmas. You ask, " Do you see signs of Hfs coming foot- 
steps ? " I answer, " Yes^ yes ; there are everywhere signs of His.coming. I can see the 
fields white for the harvest." The question I would send back to my friends is, " Where 
are the reapers ? " During the past week, which was the week of prayer, my sister 
and I attended thirty meetings. But there were calls from villages for Gospel meetings 
which we could not attend. How are my sister and myself to direct the teaching of 
the Bible lessons to nearly 2000 children in schools? In our field are nearly 20,000 
people, and every village open for the Gospel, and caUing for moonlight meetings. 
We have had the Christians, not only men but women and children, organized into 
companies to go to these meetings, but they are not enough. At any of these meetings, 
if sister or I can go, from one to five hundred will attend. Formerly a missionary 
had to go through a village and call the people, and he thought he was successful if 
he could get a dozen or two to listen to him ; but now, when the fields are ripe for the 
harvest, we are short of labourers. 

I am just now enjoying very much 
accompanying our dear native Bible- 
women, and visiting the homes usually 
visited by them, and going over the Bible 
lessons taught by them during the last 
three months. I think they are doing 
very good work. I see real progress in 
the women whom they visit — not only that 
they can say more Bible verses, but that 
they show more earnestness and more 
desire to know God, and more wish to 
serve Him. I have hope that in many 
hearts there is true love for Christ. Though 
fear of husbands and friends and custom 
keeps them from coming out to Church, 
or openly acknowledging Him by joining 
the Church, yel they do acknowledge Him 
in t/ieir homes and before their families and 
friends, and are known in their homes as 




A BIBLE-WOMAN. 



66 Helpers at Home. 

women who do not go to heathen tevipks or rub ashes, but who study the Bible and pray. 
Let us rejoice in this, and pray the Lord to give them strength for the other part, 
which is, oh, so hard in this country ! You at home cannot know the strength of 
customs and caste prejudices here, or how difficult it is to break away from these. 1 
wish you could go with me to these homes and see these bright faces, and hear the 
words of welcome, and see the serious earnestness with which they at once sit down 
and recite their Bible lessons. I cannot help thanking God, again and again, that we 
are granted the great privilege of sowing the precious seed of His Word in so many 
willing hearts. I hope our friends at home will continue in prayer for this work. 

At the annual meeting of the Jaffna Auxiliary Bible Society, recently held in the 
town of Jaffna, I heard an English Church missionary relate an incident which had 
been told him by a missionary from China, and which has been in my thoughts a 
great deal since. He said that in the China Inland Mission the work in some places 
seemed very hard and discouraging, but in one native church, under the care of a 
native pastor, there were always inquirers and conversions and additions to the 
Church, and this was so remarkable as to e.xxite the attention of many of the workers 
in China. One of the missionaries of that mission on going home to England was 
met by a gentleman from Bristol, who invited him to his house, and surprised him by 
asking him the most careful questions, showing a remarkable and thorough acquaintance 
with the work. In the course of the conversation it became known that this Bristol 
gentleman had undertaken some time ago the support of the native pastor before 
mentioned, and had sent the funds regularly through the society on condition that this 
pastor should send him very frequent accounts of the work in all its details. The 
missionary said he understood the secret of the success of that work when he heard 
this gentleman pray. He prayed for the young converts by name, he prayed for the in- 
quirers, stating their various difficulties, he prayed for the pastor and for the native Chris- 
tians. He prayed as one speaking to a dear and tried friend, and sure of an answer. 
And he was answered. God had in a wonderful way honoured that man's intelligent 
and believing prayer. When I heard it I could not keep back the tears. We want such 
believing prayers offered for Jaffna. It seems as if we could not do without them. 

"The Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy that it 
cannot hear." Is it indifference and unbelief which have kept back the blessing 
which He was willing and waiting to give ? 

" God be merciful unto tis, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us." 
" That Thy w.\y may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all 
NATIONS. Let the people praise Thee, O God: let all the people praise Thee. O let tht 
nations be glad and sing for joy." 







CHAPTER XVII. 



Protection in Time of Danger. 

Manepy, July /\,th, 1884. 

UST five years ago to-day we left our 
Vermont home and turned our faces 
toward Boston and the foreign field. 

We are celebrating the day in what 
is to us a very joyful manner, viz. in 
twelve persons examined by the committee for Church 
They will join on profession of faith on the coming 
Sabbath. There are a number of others who have asked to be received, but it was 
thought best for them to wait till next occasion, in order that the Christians may 
have time to know them better and have fuller proof of their sincerity. I trust they 
may prove true. 

Last April and May the smallpox broke out in several of the villages around us, 
making it necessary for us to close a number of our day-schools for a time, but not 
one of our Christians or Sabbath School children, as far as we know, has suffered. At 
the time nearly 2000 children were learning the 91st Psalm : " He that -dwelleth in the 
secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," &c. 
This lesson had been fixed months before for this time. Was it a coincidence 
only that the precious words should come to give courage in time of danger ? Was it 
not a special providence that none of our dear people were stricken ? Yes, the special 
Providence whose love plans every moment of our lives, and therefore in life or death 
nothing can go wrong with us. 

A few months ago a Christian girl lay dying of fever. She said, " I do not want 
to stay ; I want to go, for heaven is better." A little later she said, " Mother, I see in 
heaven they are giving in their accounts," and a moment later, '' I see my little 
sister there ;" and stretching out her hands she died with a glad smile. Her father a 
native Christian lawyer, has just given Rs 750 in memory of his two daughters, to found 
two scholarships in the Wesleyan Girls' Boarding-School where they studied. 

This is an index of how true a hold Christianity has on the hearts of native 



6S Mourning without Hope. 

Christians here. Many in years to come, in the name and for the sake of these dear 
departed ones, will receive the blessings of a Christian education in this Girls' Boarding- 

School. 

* * 

* 

After reaching Ceylon one of the first things which affected me very deeply was 
the sight of a heathen funeral. On going to the house where a little child had died, 
I found the mother beating her face on the ground and wailing most piteously. Tlie 
human heart is just the same all the world over, and mothers love their children. This 
poor mother had no hope of ever seeing this child again or taking it in her arms or 
knowing it as her child, and Iier heart 7vas breaking. Soon the little body which she 
pressed so convulsively to her bosom would be carried away by the men of the 
village and reduced to ashes in the burning ground, and the ashes would be strewn in 
the sea. She thought the child she loved was lost to her for ever, and the future 
seemed, all dark to her. Very often mothers, under such circumstances, will refuse 
to eat food for days together, and sometimes a mother's hopelessness and despair 
are such that she commits suicide. 

Dear mothers in the home land, some of you have lost a little child. What did 
you do in that sad hour ? You went into your closet and looked up into the face of 
your Christ, and poured out all your sorrows before Him. You remembered that He 
had said, " Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not : for of such 
is the kingdom of Heaven." You thought how He had taken up little children in 
His arms and blessed them, and you beUeved that your little one was safe and happy 
with Him, that He was caring for it better than you could care for it, that you would 
see it again, and your hearts were comforted. Was it not so? Remember there are 
other mothers who need the same comfort which comforted you in your hours of 
great sorrow. Oh, make haste to tell the heathen mothers of Jesus, the Almighty 
Saviour, the infinitely compassionate One, for they need Him as much as you do. 

Some time after we landed in Ceylon I attended a Christian funeral. Again it was 
a little child that had died. I looked into the faces of the father and mother, and 
although tlieir eyes were full of tears, I saw a look of hope on their faces. A number 
of native Christians had come to the house, and we joined together in singing Christian 
hymns. The native minister came and held a brief servi'-e. Then all followed the 
body to the grave-yard, walking in procession and singing in the Tamil language : — 

"There's a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. 
For our Fatlier waits over the way, to provide us a dwelling-place there. 
In the sweet by-and-by we shall meet on that licautiful shore. 
In the sweet by-aud-by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." 



Cur Dead 7iot Lost. 



69 



We stood around the open grave, and the native minister opened the Bible and read 
those words of Christ's: "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that beheveth in 
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Marvellous words ! Surely none 
but a J3ivine Saviour could have spoken words so suited to meet the needs of the 
human heart. I looked again at the faces of the father and mother ; they were 
upturned to heaven, and I saw in them a look of resignation and peace. In my heart 
I thanked God that we had such a Gospel to give to the heathen — a Gospel which 
presents such glorious hopes. Our dead are not lost, but gone before. We shall meet 
them again on tne other side, and there shall be no partings there, " and God shall 
wipe away all tears from all eyes." 




6* 





CHAPTER XVIII. 

A Christian Wedding. 

Manepy, July \Uh, 18S4. 

ilE had a very large 
Christian wedding 
in our church the 
other day It was 
attended by at least 800 people, 
many of them from amongst 
the highest families in Jaffna. 
The father of the bride years 
ago came from a high heathen 
family, to study in the mission 

boarding-school. To enter there, one of the subjects for examination was the Scripture 
catechism. Although his father was a stiff heathen and had his son taught in a 
private heathen school, yet he sent him to a Christian village school for a few months, 
just in order that he might learn the Christian catechism and pass a good examination. 
This was the beginning of his knowledge of Christianity. He then went to study at 
the Batticotta Seminary (a school which preceded the Jaffna College), and while a 
student there he became convinced of the truth and was brought to Christ. When 
his parents knew this they were very angry, and threatened him with the loss of his 
inheritance On the Sabbath, when he was to have been baptized, they shut him up 
and took away all his clothes. When, later on, he received baptism, he was cast off 
by his parents, but our mission sent him to Manepy, where he studied medicine under 
the late Dr. Green. He is now the leading native Christian doctor in Manepy. and 
has a large practice and wide reputation. 

He married a Christian girl, having refused offers from the parents of much richer 
heathen girls. He has now a large, fine stone house, and an interesting family of 
children. His wife is a very lovely woman, beautiful in person, in mind, and in heart. 
It is a joy and satisfaction to have her company and help in village meetings, or in 
visitinc in the homes of the pupils of the Bible-women. She teaches a class of girls in 




A NATIVE GIRL. 



72 



Dead to Heatlienisin. 




A LITTLE BRIDESMAID. 



Sunday School, though most women with a family of six children, 
three of them little ones, would not think they could come 
promptly at 8.30 a.m. on Sabbath mornings as she does. She 
goes out every Sabbath afternoon to hold a women's meeting in 
the neighbouring village, taking her little children with her. 

The eldest daughter, about whose marriage I began to tell you, 
is a beautiful girl, nineteen years old, educated in the boarding- 
school, speaking English, able to read music and play on the 
organ, and a good singer; she sews and embroiders, and is a 
good housekeeper ; but more important than all, she is an earnest, 
loving Christian. 

A young man related to a high heathen family, who studied in 
the Jaffna College and became a Christian, asked for the daughter 
in marriage, because she was a true Christian. When this young 
man's parents heard of it, they were very angry. They wished 
him to marry a rich heathen girl, and return to heathenism. 
They offered if he would do this to give him ;^3oo, and the relatives offered ;^"ioo if 
he would marry with heathen ceremonies. He refused, and chose to cast in his lot 
with the Christians. The persecution of his friends was so great that he felt he must 
either accede to their wishes and become a heathen, or else leave his home, which he 
did. His mother threatened to throw herself into the well, and his father threatened 
to disinherit him, and finally they sent him word that they regarded him as one dead. 

It was very trying that not one of his immediate relatives was present at his marriage, 
but the Christians and the missionaries and many educated and influential natives 
were present, to the number of 800. The marriage was celebrated in the Manepy 
church. I was glad that so many should have the opportunity of seeing a Christian 
marriage, and hearing the words of the native pastor and our missionaries. It was 
nearly dusk when they left the church. Christian lyrics in Tamil composed for the 
occasion, and sung with accompaniment of native instruments, having very pleasantly 
filled up the time. 

As the bridal party left the church, garments were spread before them the whole 
way to their home, an arch of flowers was borne over their heads, a band of music 
preceded them, and the whole company of people accompanied them on foot in the 
brilliant glare of torches, blue and red lights, rockets and fireworks, provided by fiiends 
to grace the occasion. 

We hope that they may have a very happy and useful life, and carry out their intention 
of devoting themselves directly to Christian work in connection with this mission. 







^'Hii^'^iZ*':^ - 




THE OODOOVILLE GIRLS BOARDING-SCHOOL. 




CHAPTER XIX. 

Persecution and Deliverance. 

Oodooville, yanuary, 1885. 
EAR the close of last year we were stationed at Oodooville, a place about a 
mile distant from Manepy, and in addition to our other work we were 
given the charge of the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School. Will you not 
pray that grace may be given us to meet these added responsibilities ? 
The past year has been one of much encouragement. Fifty-nine persons have 
united with the three Churches in our field, namely forty-five in Manepy, eleven in 
Navaly, and three in Panditerippu. Besides these, quite a number from our field, 
former members of our day and Sabbath schools and inquirers' classes, have been 
received on profession of faith in the Wesleyan and Church Mission churches, and 
are now students in the boarding-schools of those Missions. In all this we rejoice. 
Our native Christians, at the beginning of the year, during the week of prayer, united 
together to pray that fifty might be brought to Christ within the year. Some thought 



74 Chelappah. 

it was a very large request, but it was the prayer of faith from more than one heart. 
They now feel that God has heard this prayer, and they take courage to ask for great 
things this coming year. We do not forget that dear friends in the home-land have 
been praying especially for this field and work, and we are glad that these prayers 
have been and are being answered, and we believe that we shall rejoice together at the 
last great ingathering. 

Another encouraging feature of the year has been the forming of several new- 
inquirers' classes. There are now held weekly seventeen such classes, with a 
total average attendance of about 150. In these meetings the portion of Scripture 
appointed to be read during the week is explained. Each one is expected to repeat a 
verse of Scripture and to offer prayer. The leader also inquires after and encourages 
each one in the class in regard to habits of daily prayer, Bible study, and church 
attendance. The classes are conducted by the native pastors, catechists, leading 
native Christians, and by ourselves. To join one of these classes helps the young 
people to take a step toward confessing Christ, puts them under the care of older 
Christians, and thus, by meeting together from week to week, they become a band of 
friends to encourage each other. They also become known in their villages as 
inquirers. Inquirers' classes are rallying points to which any one showing signs of 
interest is at once invited. In countries where to leave idolatry and come over to a 
public profession of Christianity is so vast a change, such a class as a stepping-stone 
is a great help. It is our desire to see an inquirers' class, however small, in every day- 
school before the end of the coming year. For God's help in this, and for these 150 
inquirers, we ask our home friends to pray. 

The religious history of some of those who joined the church this year seems to us 
interesting. I will mention a few instances. 

Chelappah, a man in Arnikotty, was led to Christ by the persistent efforts of a young 
Christian boy. He has shown so much earnestness in regard to bringing up his family, 
as quite to put to shame many of our older Christians. He brought his wife and 
children to church. He did not make the common excuse of want of jewels and 
beautiful clothes, and though the heathen relatives persecuted and ridiculed him, he 
took no notice. He had his children baptized. He bought a whole Bible and began 
family prayers. He sought the Bible-women and invited them to teach his wife. 
He brought his daughter often to the girls' inquirers' class, walking the mile both 
ways and waiting patiently outside during the meeting. He had the joy of seeing his 
wife join the church at the close of the year. 

One of the inquirers, a young man of a high heathen family, has lately achieved a 
great success in being married without heathen ceremonies. The parents of boih 



A Brave Christian Pariah. 75 

parties were strong Sivites, but the young man never for a moment wavered. The 
bride had formerly learned the Bible lessons in our day-school, and again, when too 
old to go to day-school, i.e. after the age of twelve, she had been taught in her home 
by one of our Bible-women, so she also favoured a Christian marriage — one of the 
many good results of Bible-women's work. 

Another, a young man of the Pariah caste, who had studied in one of our day-schools, 
was threatened by the higher-caste heathen people, his former masters, with dreadful 
punishments if he should join the church ; for the old system of master and serf, 
though under the English Government it is done away with in name, still exists in a 
greater or less degree, and the Pariahs stand much in fear of, and are in subjection to, 
the higher castes. For three years he hid the light in his heart, living privately as a 
Christian, but fearing to confess Christ. At last the light would not stay hid, and he 
joined the church. The next Sabbath he was stopped on his way to the morning 
service and ordered to work, and beaten because he refused. He still continued to 
attend church, and because of this, one day when on his way to town with a bundle 
of cloth to sell, he was caught, robbed of his cloth and earrings and waist-chain, com- 
pelled to walk ten miles in the hot sun, and left in a strange village, with threats that 
if he ever returned to his home he would be imprisoned. This was done, it appears, 
to intimidate other low-caste people from becoming Christians, lest they should 
become enlightened and no longer submit to heathen control. The youth stayed 
away some weeks, and then ventured back and still continued to attend church. His 
late masters then instituted a false case against him in court, but through the efforts of 
our native Christians it was abandoned, though both parties were fined a considerable 
sum for non-appearance. The heathen people were enraged that they had to pay 
this sum, and forthwith dragged the youth to their house and made him stand for 
three hours in the mid-day sun, with his face turned toward the sky and holding a stone 
on his forehead — a most cruel torture. On learning this, we warned the people that 
if they committed another act of violence toward him they would be prosecuted. On 
the next Sabbath the youth, notwithstanding threats and punishments, was found in 
his place in church both morning and evening. The lesson in Sabbath School was 
about Paul's willingness not only to be bound but also to die for the name of the Lord 
Jesus, and I noticed, while teaching it, that his face was shining as if with the very 
light of heaven. Poor youth, I little thought how soon another trial would come to 
him! On the very next day those men took him to their house, and, tying his hands 
and feet, beat him in the most shameful manner and left him bound in that way for 
some hours. My sister was called by a relative and saw him in this state. The 
moment she had left him in order to seek for help, they, fearing she would take a case 



76 



Persecutors Fined. 



against them, dragged the youth for some distance over the dust and stones on his 
bleeding back, which was unprotected by any clothing, and then marched him off to 
town over fields and fences a round-about way, for fear that others would see them, 
their object being to get a false case into court before we could enter a true one. 
But their plan did not succeed, for my sister saw the police inspector the next 
morning, and the magistrate at once gave orders to have the men arrested and sent to 
jail, with the prospect before them, if the case were tried, of being sent to prison for 
a term of years. They begged for mercy, which for the sake of peace in the village 
we thought best to grant, but they had to pay fines and costs, &c., amounting to about 
Rs. loo, I think, and they have promised in future to let the youth alone. The 
incident has proved a complete success, for if any low castes wish in future to join 
the church, they will feel at liberty to do so. The people of that village have learned 
several lessons. And I want to say that all along the self-control, firmness, and 
courage of the youth were admirable, and showed what Christianity could do even for 
a Pariah. 




TAPAL RUNNERS. 




ELEPHANTS BATHING, 



CHAPTER XX. 

Brief Visit to Newera Ellia. 

New era Ellia, July 3otli, 18S5. 
OU will see by the heading that I am not at this moment 
m Jaffna, but m the interior of the island, on the top 
of hills over 5000 feet above the sea. I have come here for a 
few weeks of rest at the invitation of a lady, the wife of a 
missionary of the Church Missionary Society. They were in 
Jaffna for some years, our neighbouring fellow-workers. They 
are our dear friends, and " esteemed very highly in love for 
their works' sake " 

I was very glad to escape for a little while from the trying heat of Jaffna. The hot 
season, February to May, was unusually long this year, for the wind was late in coming ; 
and as we had more than the usual amount of work on our hands, three of the 
missionaries being absent in America on account of health, I suppose I must have 
overworked a little, for I began to be very easily tired, and to feel unable to go on 
with my duties. Now, after a little perfect quiet and freedom from care, in this 
delightful climate, with the beautiful wooded hills all about me, reminders of the dear 
home land, and a pleasant change from Jaffna which is quite flat, I feel my old 
self again, am able to eat and sleep well and to take long walks of two or three miles 
morning and p.vening. I shall soon return to Jaffna, and when this letter reaches you, 
you may think of me as back again at Oodooville with our 108 girls in the boarding- 
school, and with sister, who has been finding it a little hard to be without me. But 
she has been going on with the work nobly, having large moonlight meetings and 
women's meetings, also a thank-offering meeting, besides the Sabbath-school, whose 




A VIKW IN CEYLON. 




A TREE FERN. 

numbers have now swelled to 340. I long to be back again. I shall return with 
new courage, and hope to make up for my short holiday by the renewed vigour with 
which I shall be able to go on with my duties. Sister has had three Christian singers 
over from India during my absence. Two were from the Madura Mission and one 
from Trichinopoly, South India. The latter chants the psalms beautifully, using the 
Gregorian or Free Chants, which are very easy, and which are liked much by our 
native Christians, and thus God's words are becoming more known and precious. 
The Madura men have been teaching some of the beautiful new Christian hymns 
and lyrics lately composed in South India, adapted to native tunes, collected and 



go Sunstroke Dangers. 

arranged by the Rev. J. S. Chandler, of the Madura Mission, and (mblished in Madras 
by the Religious Tract Society. The singers brought over 3000 copies, which are 
being eagerly bought up by our native Christians, day-school children, and even 
the heathen community. These nevr songs are being widely learned and sung — one 
of the easiest and best ways of diffusing Christian truth. When I return to Jaffna 
we hope to arrange for a large public concert of Christian song, such as has been 
held on two previous occasions. 

Now I will tell you a little about ray present surroundings, which I think are very 
beautiful. The house in which I am is situated on the shore of a little lake, some 
four miles in circumference. This lake is nestled in the lap of the hills, which 
surround it on all sides. There are three beautiful little waterfalls in sight, winding 
down the sides of these hills like silver threads, and reminding me of the waterfalls I 
saw in Switzerland when we were on our way to Ceylon. There are many well-kept 
carriage drives and walks all about, for this place is the Government Sanatorium of 
the island, and there are about forty European residences, besides the native village. 
The Governor and his suite come here in the season. Then the place is very gay. 

My hostess — when the pony is at home and not in use by her husband on his 
preaching tours in the surrounding estates — takes me out for long and pleasant drives 
of from six to twelve miles in the afternoons, which I much enjoy, and we come home 
with our hands full of wild flowers and ferns. The air is mild, and the thermometer 
is at 65° in the middle of the day indoors. So we sit with doors and windows open, 
and the perfume of flowers floating in and filling the air with fragrance. Flowers grow 
here so easily, and many varieties are in bloom in the garden surrounding the house. 
Some of them are old home friends. The most lovely budded roses of all varieties 
thrive well. Mignonette, fuchsia, and geraniums grow here into tall shrubs higher 
than my head. Peach-trees have both blossoms and fruit at the same time. Orange- 
trees hang golden with oranges. Several kinds of Australian trees, having been intro- 
duced into the country some time ago, now grow and flourish everywhere. Great tree 
ferns, tossing their huge soft feathery plumes twenty to thirty feet high in the air, grow 
all about, and are my constant wonder and admiration. There are many kinds of 
ferns here ; I am making a collection in my walks, and pressing them to send home. 

The tropical sun retains its old power even here, and one cannot long be out under 
it unprotected without getting a headache. Some people, deceived by the cool air, 
go out in the middle of the day and get sunstroke. One man, a little while ago, was 
struck down to the ground, had to crawl home on his hands and knees, and was ill 
for a long time afterwards, all because he walked out in the sunshine without a pith 
hat or umbrella. 



In the Interior. 8i 

All this interior part of Ceylon has by English industry and capital been converted 
into huge tea and coffee and cinchona estates. Thousands of Tamil coolies come 
over from India, and are employed on these plantations. There is a railroad from 
Colombo to this place, and a small steamer goes round the island twice a month. It 
is by this steamer that I will return from Colombo to Jaffna. 




-t^t'-i^^. / 



THE COFFEE PLANT liN FLOWER AND FKLTT. 




A NATIVE BOAT. 



CHAPTER XXI. 




Itinerating on the Islands. 

Oodooville, March 31, 18S6. 
ilTHIN the fourteen months since we wrote to you, sixty have joined the 
Oodooville church on profession of faith, thirty from the villages, and 
thirty from the boarding-school. It was an interesting thing to see 
young girls with bright, earnest faces, young lads in the promise of 
manhood, fathers and mothers with their little children in their arms or clinging to 
their garments, old men and women feeble and bowed with age, one leaning on his 
staff, all standing up together, the rich and the poor, the high and the low, together 
confessing before all the congregation their faith in Jesus the Saviour of the world, 
their one Lord. 

At present the list of inquirers connected with this church alone numbers 130. A 
copy of the list is given to each of the leading church members, with the request that 
they will pray for and encourage these individuals. Two meetings for inquirers, one 
for women, the other for men, are regulady held every Sabbath immediately after the 
morning service. 



Prize-day at Oodooville. 83 

In Oodooville, Manepy, Navaly, and Panditeripu, we had altogether ten Christmas- 
trees, and gave away to the Roll of Honour children 102 Tamil New Testaments. 
Will you not pray with us that God will bless His own Word to these young hearts 
and in so many homes? The well-filled home-boxes received from America just 
before Christmas lightened our labours greatly, and made the occasions very happy 
ones to hundreds of pleased recipients. Could the children at home who prepared 
the gifts have seen the joy of all the little ones here who received them, I think 
they would have felt repaid for their trouble. The more expensive picture-books^ 
beautiful scrap-books, work bags, &c., which seemed too choice for the village 
children, proved just the thing for prizes for the girls of the boarding-school, who 
were glad to carry them home and show them with pride to their friends. The 
total attendance at all our Christmas-trees was over three thousand — men, women, and 
children. 

On February 15 the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-school closed its school year, gradu- 
ating a class of twenty-four girls, all professing Christians. The public exercises were 
attended by several missionaries and by a large number of native friends, including 
many of the leading educated men and women of Jaffna. One could not help noting 
how large a number of the women present were graduates of this institution. 'Their 
faces showed the pleasure they had in revisiting their Alma Mater, and listening to the 
recitations and songs of their children now in the school. All the graduating class 
took part in the exercises, eighteen giving short English recitations, and six reading 
Tamil essays on the following subjects : The Women of India, The Wonders of the 
Nineteenth Century, The PoA'er of Christianity, ],ord Shaftesbury, The Duty of the 
Women of Jaffna in Regard to Temperance, and The Class History and Valedictory. 
The exercises were varied by frequent songs — a Tamil lyric, a motion song, a children's 
English play-song, a tonic sol-fa round, a chant, two English part songs, and a good-bye 
lyric composed for the occasion and sung responsively by the graduating class and the 
school. Six girls also in turn played on the organ, accompanying the singing. At 
the close, the chairman, the Rev. Dr. Hastings, made some appropriate remarks, in 
which he pictured the condition of things in Jaffna in 1816, when the missionaries 
first came. Then not a single woman or girl in the whole peninsula could read. 
Now there are nearly 5000 girls studying in mission schools, 400 of whom are studying 
in Mission Girls' Boarding-schools, and there are over 1000 Native Christian female 
communicants in the different mission churches, many of them actively engaged in 
work for Christ. We may well exclaim, " What hath God wrought ! " He then 
presented to each of the class a diploma, a Tamil Reference Bible, and a lyric and 
hymn-book. Nineteen prizes were awarded for general scholarship, as well as for 




^/?$M/-/^./: 



SHORE LINED WITH PALMS. 



needlework and deportment ; eight for punctuality and attendance ; three for instru- 
mental music ; four for neatness of person and dress ; and two for cooking. The 
occasion seems to have been enjoyed by all. In the Government Grant Examination 
held a few days ago, the school passed eighty-four per cent., and earned 2450 
rupees.* 

The day after the graduating exercises of our boarding-school, I took a trip to 
islands lying south-west of Jaffna. These have a population of 28,000 people. I 
took with me our tent, folding organ, violin, cymbals, and five singing children, a 
native pastor, a catechist, a Bible-woman, and two young men, one a student in 

* This school receives no aid from any missionary society, excepting the superintendence of the 
missionaries. The expenses of the school are met by the Government grant, the fees of the pupils, 
and the interest of an endowment and scliolarship fund. We have secured subscriptions toward this 
fund, mostly from native sources, of Rs. 15,000. Of this Rs. 7100 have been already paid, and the remain- 
der is to be paid in monthly or quarterly instalments through a period of )'oars. Friends of this school 
in America liave most kindly sent to us or paid to our brother sums amounting to ..^160, which has 
been invested lor tlie school. 



Canapathy. 85 

the Theological class and one a teacher in the Tillipally Training School, also our 
magic-lantern and Bible pictures. We visited and held meetings at three of these 
islands^ but spent most of our time on the island of Delft. This, on account of the 
meeting of different currents within a mile or so of the shore, is quite difficult of 
access, and although sometimes visited by missionary genriemen, it has never before, 
within the knowledge of any one living there, so I was told, been visited by any white 
lady. The people seemed delighted to see us, and we had on the evening of our 
arrival a meeting of perhaps one hundred and fifty — men, women, and children. We 
showed our magic-lantern pictures ; firsts the birth of Christ, explaining about the 
coming of Christ and our need of a Saviour ; then the beautiful pictures of Christ 
blessing little children, raising the dead, and giving sight to the blind^ the Sermon on the 
Mount, the returning prodigal, &c. All listened with attention and great interest. 
After this we held meetings each morning and evening, and visited the people in their 
homes during the day, but not in the middle of the day, as the sun was too hot to 
permit our going out ; but at that time the people, at our request, visited us. This 
island contains about 2000 people. The most of the lower castes have become Roman 
Catholics, but all the others are Sivites. There is a good school here, supported by 
the Native Missionary Society, with an attendance of about fifty children taught by a 
Christian teacher. There are as yet no converts on the island, except a young boy, 
Canapathy PuUay, belonging to one of the highest families. He was converted while 
studying under this teacher. He is now studying in our English school at Manepy, 
and we hope when he shall have finished his studies he will go back as a catechist to 
work on his native island. This young boy was at home while we were there, and 
was very diligent in helping to arrange for our meetings and in calling his friends to 
attend them. His grandfather is the most influential man on the island, and is now 
engaged in building an expensive heathen temple. I passed it in company with 
Canapathy Pullay as we were calling people to a meeting, and as we looked at it he 
brushed the tears from his eyes and said : " I wish my grandfather would become 
a Christian." It is said that, if this man should become a Christian, most likely many 
of the people of the island would give up heathenism. It has been a great joy to us 
to know the firmness with which this young boy, Canapathy Pullay, has adhered 
to Christianity, refusing in any way to participate in heathen rites or ceremonies. The 
grandfather said to me : " Take the boy ; he belongs to you ; he has given up his old 
religion." The boy's mother and her four sisters, all respectable married women and 
much adorned with jewellery, came to see me. They told me the boy had said I was 
his mother, and that I was kind to him, and so they wanted to see me. I told 
them that if I was the boy's mother, then it must follow that they were my sisters. 



86 Reluctant to Part. 

They seized the idea with apparent deUght, and, putting their arms around me, covered 
ray hands with kisses in the native manner, that is, smelling them as if smelling a 
rose or something fragrant. I told them that if they were my sisters, they must 
become Christians. They have consented to let Canapathy PuUay's sister and cousin 
join our boarding-school next year. His sister is a beautiful girl, and has as sweet 
a smile as any perhaps I have ever seen on a child's face. We also took with us on 
our return to Jaffna a cousin of this Canapathy Pullay, to join the Tillipally Training- 
school. 

I think our meetings were greatly blessed. Of those who attended, eleven 
expressed a wish to be baptized, and to be known thenceforth as Christians. We 
formed them into an inquirers' class, and asked them to go regularly every Sabbath 
morning to the teacher's house to be instructed. One of the inquirers, when asked 
why he believed in Christ, answered with emotion : " I have heard of our gods fighting 
great battles and doing many wonders, but I have never heard of their loving us 
and dying to save us." These high families seem to be all related, and I believe 
that when they begin to become Christians they will all come together. The people 
were very kind and hospitable to us. When we visited a house the first question 
usually asked was : " What can we give you ? " and forthwith they would have a 
cow or a goat, or perhaps a buffalo, lassoed and brought to the door and milked, and 
would give us fresh milk to drink. They drew the milk into a hollow bamboo-stick 
and we drank it from a folded plantain-leaf. 

We enjoyed our stay very much, and the people seemed sorry that we should leave. 
Some of the women clung to me and said : " You must stay with us." This I would 
dearly have liked to do but for my much-loved work in Jaffna. But I thought of 
my wealthy sisters in more favoured lands, some of whom could be spared from their 
homes; They are spending their time perhaps over music, painting, or such things, all 
well enough in a way, but I wished they could know something of the supreme joy of 
having a child or woman with a dark skin, but bright,. intellectual face, look up into theirs 
with a grateful gaze and say : " You have made known to me my Heavenly Father." 
Could you bring from the piano a strain of music as sweet as that ? Could you draw 
on a canvas a face that would shine like such a face ? A painter once said to me : 
" My great grief is that my pictures cannot breathe or speak, that the heart cannot 
beat or feel." But you might draw pictures on faces that speak, and on hearts that 
feel. We bade the people farewell, promising to visit them soon again if possible. 





CHAPTER XXII. 

Gnanamutthu. 

Oodooville, April, 1886. 
F the 120 girls who are now studying in the boarding-school, fifty are 
Church members and seventy are not. Many of those who have entered 
the school this year were from heathen families, and some had never really 
heard of Christ before. A little girl from one of the islands, when we 
told her of heaven, asked in great wonder if we had come from there. 

To lead these girls to Christ, and to form in them a Christian character which will 
stand the test of the sore trials to which they will surely be exposed hereafter — "Who 
is sufficient for these things ? " and the time so short. Every year girls drop out from 
the different classes, never to return to the school. Often our girls are taken out of 
the school to be married. Their heathen parents will try to marry them to heathen 
relatives. What we do must be done quickly and well. Will you not specially ask 
for us and ours God's blessing ? We thank Him daily for giving us so large a number 
of dear ones to train for Him. It is a happy work. It is His work. 

April T,oth. — Jesus has called one of our dear girls home to Himself. She was a 
day-scholar of the boarding-school, and lived with her parents, who are Christians, 
only two or three compounds from us. She was sick but a few days and her death 
was quite unexpected, but the Master came and called for her. It is a joy to us all to 
feel sure that she was ready to go. Though only nine years old, she had learned to love 
her Saviour and to work for Him also. Her older brother joined the Church at the 
last communion, and this dear child Gnanamutthu begged hard to join, but her parents 
thought she was too young. Now they are very sorry. Gnanamutthu (Wisdom Pearl) 
was a member of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour and one of the 
" Look-out Committee," and a faithful little worker. The subject for our next meeting. 




MISS M. W. LEITCH AND TAMIL GIRLS. 



Idols Pozverless. 89 

appointed at our last, is "Heaven." How little we thought that before the next 
meeting came to be held one of our number would be called to enter there ! How 
dear and real has the place now become ! 

Gnanamutthu used often to call her school-mates and hold little prayer-meetings in 
her own or neighbouring homes. The priest of a neighbouring Sivite temple told us 
that when his little son was very sick, Gnanamutthu came to the house, and kneeling 
down by the sick child prayed so earnestly for his recovery that all who heard it said 
it seemed as if she were talking with God, and as if He were very near. The child 
recovered, and the father believes it was in answer to her prayer. This morning, on 
going to the funeral-house, I found there thirty or forty of the heathen neighbours who 
had come in of their own accord, according to the custom of the country, to mourn 
for the dead. These women were beating their breasts and tearing their hair, 
and swaying their bodies back and forth, and all together uttering piercing shrieks. 
This they will do for seven days, gathering together morning and evening. Their 
cries can be heard a long distance off. At my coming they became quiet, and I spoke 
to them of Jesus, the friend of little children. I told them of this child's faith in Him, 
of the joy and peace He had given her in sickness, and of the glorious happy home to 
which we believed He had taken her. They gathered close around me and listened 
with eager, hungry looks. Many of them had lost httle ones, and they asked if I thought 
they would ever see them again. One said her little babe had died, but she supposed 
it would come again to this world in the form of a snake or a rat, or some other 
animal. The Hindus believe in 8,400,000 transmigrations. How glad I was to tell 
those hungry mother-hearts of a better hope, a hope that their dear infants were 
gathered in the Saviour's arms, to "go no more out," but to be for ever safe and 
sheltered in His bosom, and that this Saviour was their Saviour too if they would but 
come to Him, and that He had taken their little ones in love that they might follow 
after. 

When I left the house one of the women walked home with me. She said 
that, since the death of her two Christian children, she had lost faith in idols and had 
left off going to temples, and now she wanted to worship the Saviour they worshipped, 
and to meet them in heaven. 

" Let sorrow do its work, 

Send grief and pain ; 
Sweet are Thy messengers. 

Sweet their refrain, 
When they can sing with me 
More love, O Christ, to Thee, 

More love to Thee." 




A CHILDREN S UUTDOOR MEETIN&. 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Young People's Societv of Christian Endeavour. 

T is a striking truth which is embodied in the familiar saying, " The boy of 
to-day is the man of to-morrow." If we as Missionaries and Christian 
workers wish to win and hold this country for Christ, we must win and 
hold the children, for the boys and girls of the present will be the men 
and women of the future, the not distant but near future. 

A little boy, when asked derisively by some onCj " What are little boys like you 
good for ? " replied, " Please, sir, litde boys like me are the stuff they make men of" 
His answer was one which every worker for Christ and humanity would do well to lay 
to heart. Work for the children is the strategic point in our campaign. Men and 
women in heathen lands, are bound by the trammels of custom and habit, their minds 
are darkened by superstition and worldly wisdom, and their consciences hardened by 
sin. But the child's heart is open and tender, and if saved and won to Christ it is 
not a half-wasted life but a whole life saved and won. 

Two questions had long been pressing on our minds in connection with the work 
for the children, viz. how could we best foster the spiritual life of the native Christian 
children and train them into useful and active Christian workers ; and how could we 
lead heathen children to take a first step toward Christ, by giving up heathen practices 
and voluntarily placing themselves under Chiistian influences? On reading a book 



Christian " Endeavourers." 91 

entitled "The Children and the Church," by the Rev. F. ' E, Clark, of Boston, 
founder of "The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour," we were led' to 
feel that the methods of this society, which had proved so successful in America, 
were adapted to heathen lands as well, and as a result three societies bearing this name 
and having the constitution and bye-laws of the parent society, and with a membership 
of 170, have been formed in different parts of our field. The object of these societies 
is, " To promote an earnest Christian life among the members, to increase their mutual 
acquaintance, and to make them more useful in the service of God." The members 
consist of two classes. Active and Associate, and the President, Vice-President, 
Secretary, and Treasurer, are chosen from among the active members. All candidates 
applying for active membership are required to sign the following pledge (I append 
the revised version) : — ' 

Trusting in tlie Lord Jesus Christ for strengtli, I promise Him tliat I will strive to do whatever He 
would like to have me do ; that I will make it the rule of my life to pray and to read the Bible every 
day ; that I will support my own church in every way, especially by attending all her regular Sunday 
and mid-week services, unless prevented by some reason which I can conscientiously give to my 
Saviour, and that, just so far as I know how, throughout my whole life, f will endeavour to lead a 
Christian life. 

As an active member, I promise to be true to all my duties, to be present at and to take some part, 
aside from singing, in every Christian Endeavour prayer-meeting, unless hindered by some reason which 
I can conscientiously give to my Lord and Master. If obliged to be absent from the monthly 
consecration meeting of the society, I will, if possible, send at least a verse of Scripture to be read in 
response to my name at the roll-call. 

In the three societies formed various committees have been appointed from among 
the membership, viz. the Prayer-meeting Committee, Sabbath School Committee, 
Missionary Committee, and, most important of all, the Look-out Committee. 

It is delightful to see how heartily the young people enter into the spirit and work 
of the society. Oftentimes the native pastor, catechists, and teachers attend the 
weekly prayer meetings, and when they see in the one brief hour of the meeting every 
member as far as possible present and taking some part either by offering prayer, 
reciting a verse of Scripture, or speaking a few words relative to the appointed 
subject, a look of renewed hope comes into their faces, such as might be seen on the 
faces of old veterans when they behold the approach of reinforcements. 

On Sabbath mornings all the Endeavourers are present in their various Sabbath 
schools, which are growing through their efforts. After the Sabbath school comes the 
morning service, when the native pastors give to their people good, plain, gospel food, 
and the Endeavourers sit with their Bibles in their hands ready to turn up the passages 
read or quoted. But in order that the native Christians may not get " spiritual 
dyspepsia" by eating too much gospel food and doing too little gospel work. Sabbath 



92 The Forest and the Axe-heads. 

afternoons are devoted to direct efforts in behalf of the heathen around. At about 
3.30 p.m. small companies of Christian men may be seen going out in different 
directions, north, south, east, and west, to hold evangelistic meetings or to conduct 
Sabbath schools in the surrounding heathen villages, and with each company of men 
may be seen three or four Endeavour boys, who go to help in calling in the people 
and with the singing. In the same way companies of native Christian women, three 
or four in a company, may be observed going out in different directions every Sabbath 
afternoon to hold meetings in different villages among the heathen women, and with 
every company of women go three or four Endeavour girls to carry the Bibles and 
hymn-books, to help gather together the heathen women and girls, to aid in the 
singing, and to act as little nurses to any crying babies, so that the mothers may be 
able to listen without distraction. Many meetings are thus held every Sabbath 
afternoon by the native Christians, attended by hundreds of heathen. 

We earnestly desire to see a large working force developed in our Churches. In 
the great fight of light against darkness, truth against error, we must gather together 
and enlist the young, fresh energies of the Church. "Trained under the arch of a 
solemn covenant daily to read the Scriptures, and pray in secret to God, and weekly 
either to offer public prayer or bear public testimony in honour of Jesus Christ as 
their only Redeemer," we trust they will go out to fight the good fight of faith as 
brave soldiers of the Cross. If India and Ceylon are to be won for Christ, and won 
soon, every native Christian, high and low, rich and poor, old and young, must be 
enlisted as a warrior. It has been said that seven-eighths of all who have been brought 
to Christ in China have been won by the efforts of converted Chinese, and perhaps 
the same proportion would hold true of converts in Ceylon and India. A Hindu 
gentleman, after listening to an able address from a native pastor, made the following 
comment :—" Once a forest was told that a load of axe-heads had come to cut it 
down. ' It does not matter in the least,' said the forest. ' They will never succeed.' 
When, however, it heard that some of its own branches had become handles to the 
axe-heads, it said, ' Now we have no longer any chance.' So," said this gentleman, 
" as long as we only had foreigners to deal with we were safe, but now that every- 
where our own countrymen are enlisted on that side, certainly our faiths are doomed." 
This utterance is significant as showing the impression made upon the Hindus when 
the Gospel is preached to them by converted Natives. 

If the hope of the speedy evangelization of India and Ceylon lies in the native 
agency, then surely the training from earliest childhood of those on whom are soon 
to devolve such great responsibilities is a task worthy of the best efforts of the most 
devoted missionaries. 



The Maister and the Bairns." 



93 



We all remember the story of the famous master at Eisenach, John Tribonius, who 
used to give his lessons to his pupils with uncovered head, and when asked why he 
did this, he replied that it was to honour the consuls, chancellors, doctors and 
masters who would one day proceed from his school. " Though you do not see them 
with their badges," he used to say, " it is right to show them respect." And in that 
teacher's school at that time was a boy whose words, when a man, were to shake the 
world ; the boy Martin Luther. I think, as I look into the faces of the young people 
of the Endeavour Society, " These boys will some of them be pastors, catechists, or 
teachers one day, and these girls will be wives and mothers in the homes, teachers 
in the Sabbath schools, Bible-women, and Christian workers." Now, when their 
religious instincts are so strong, their consciences so tender, their young hearts so 
willing and eager, with what care, with what prayer, with what love, should they be 
nurtured and trained for the service of Christ and the Church. 

In this great work for the conversion and Christian nurture of the children, may we 
not confidently look for the blessing and help of Him who took up little children in 
His arms and blessed them, and who said, " Suffer little children to come unto Me, 
and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven " ? 



THE MAISTKR AND THE BAIRNS. 
Bv A Young Scottish Poet. 



The Maister sat in a wee cot hoose 

Tae the Jordan's waters near, 
An' the fisher fowk cvush'd and croodit roun' 

The Maister's words tae hear. 

An' even the bairns frae the near-han' streets 

War mixin' in \vi' the thrang. 
Laddies an' lassies wi' wee bare feet, 

Jinkin' the crood amang. 

An' ane o' the Twal' at the Maister's side 

Rase up an' cried alood — 
" Come, come, bairns, this is nae place for you, 

Rin awa' harae cot o' the crood." 

But the Maister said, as they turned awa', 
" Let the wee bairns come lae Me ! " 

An' He gaithered them roun' Him whar He sat. 
An' liftit ane up on His knee. 



Ay, He gaithered them roun' Him whar He sat. 

An' straikit tlieir curly hair, 
An' He said tae the won'erin' fisher fowk 

That croodit aroun' Him there — 

"Send na the weans awa' frae Me, 

But raither this lesson learn — 
That nane'U win in at heaven's yett 

That isna as pure as a bairn." 

An' He that has ta'en us for kith and kin, 

Tho' a' Prince o' the Far Awa', 
Gaithered the wee anes in His airms, 

An' blessed them ane an' a'. 



O Thou who watchest the ways o' men, 
Keep oor feet in the heavenly airt, 

An' bring us at last tae Thy hame abune, 
As pure as the bairns in he'rt. 




PEARL FISHING. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 




Precious Pearl. 

HEN the Society of Christian Endeavour was started in Oodooville, a little 
boy who hved near the church was attracted by the singing, and always 
attended the meetings. When others were joining the society he came 
forward and said he wanted to join. He was a very little fellow, and 
his two front teeth were fallen out, so that he spoke with a lisp. His head was 
all shaven except a little round place on the top, where the hair that was left 
was tied up in a knot. He wore a yard of cloth about his loins and that was 
all. This little half-naked person, with his head only a little higher than the table, 
begged to join the society. He was from a heathen family. My first thought 
was that he was too young, and did not know what he was asking, but when I. 



Pearl Fishers. 95 

told him so, tears began to gather in his eyes. He did not know how to pray, so one 
of the " Look-out Committee " promised to teach him. He said he could read, but 
had no Bible portion. I told him he must buy one. The next day, to my surprise, 
he came bringing some vegetables with which to buy a Tamil Gospel of Matthew. 

At the next meeting of the society he again asked leave to join. He showed his 
Matthew's Gospel in which, according to our rules, he had read ten verses a day. He 
had learned and recited the Lord's prayer. He said he would soon be able to pray 
in his own words like the other children. He begged to join the society. Seeing 
his earnestness, we did not like to discourage him, and as the " Look-out Committee " 
favoured it and said they would look after him, we let him join. So he came up 
proudly and wrote his name, Vidamutthu, in large Tamil letters. His name means 
" Precious Pearl." At the next meeting he brought in two of his companions. 

One evening that week, as I was taking a moonlight walk, I heard a little voice 
laboriously reading something aloud. I stopped to listen. It was the Sermon on the 
Mount. I peeped through the hedge and saw a family circle : a father, mother, and four 
children, all listening, and this little seven-year-old Vidamutthu reading aloud by the 
aid of a dim native lamp. I thought of Jesus taking a little child and setting him in 
the midst. After reading, he sang the verse of the Christian lyric taught in the day- 
schools that week, and then he prayed a little prayer and at its close recited the 
Lord's prayer. I stood listening without, and all the family sat quietly listening 
within. The next Sabbath his mother came to church. I had often before asked her 
to come, and so had our Christian women, but she had always refused. After church 
a Christian woman brought her to the inquirers' meeting. I asked her what had led 
her to come to church. She said that her little son had begged her so hard to come 
that she could not resist, that he prayed for her every night, and that she had decided 
to be a Christian. Since then she has come regularly to church. This is the story of 
how one httle *■' pearl " has begun to reflect Jesus. 

There are pearl fisheries otf the coast of Ceylon. They are a Government 
monopoly, and nobody can fish for pearls except those appointed by Government. 
But there is another kind of fishery in Ceylon, in which all are free to engage. It 
belongs to Him who said, " Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men," and 
every little boy and girl in the home and who gives and prays for Ceylon has a share 
in this pearl fishery, and can gather gems for the Saviour's crown. 







CHAPTER XXV. 

Meenatchie, the Island Girl. 

When my sister made a tour among the islands west of Jaffna she 
found a very bright little girl named Meenatchie, about twelve years 
of age, who had been studying in a heathen school and had learned 

to read, but who had never heard of Christ. She asked the 

parents to allow this little girl to be educated in the Oodooville 

Girls' Boarding-school, and they consented. 

There is a custom in this school that, when a new class is 

received, each of the older girls who have been pupils in the 

school for two or three years selects a girl from the new class 

as one for whom she will specially care ; and the older girl 

" mothers '' the little new girl, caring for her comfort, instruct- 
ing her in the ways of the school, and above all reading a 

portion of the Bible with her morning and evening, and 

teaching her to pray. There is a row of small rooms called 

" prayer-rooms" built off from the school, into which the girls 

can go and be quite alone for private prayers as often as they 

wish. When the new class was received into the school, one 

of the elder girls chose Meenatchie as her special charge, and 

began to teach her the wonderful stories of God's love for us, 

of a Saviour who died for us, and of a heavenly home. These 

were all new stories to the little girl. After a few days she 

came to us saying, " The other girls have Bibles of their own, 

MEENATCHIE (SEATED) AND HER 
FRIEND. 




Earnest Meenatchie. 97 

I have no Bible. My father did not give me a Bible with my other books ; what 
shall 1 do ? " We gave her a copy of one of the gospels in Tamil. A gospel costs 
just a penny : you see what a penny will do if dropped into the collection-box by 
some child in England or America. It will give a gospel of Matthew or Mark or Luke 
or John, in the native language, to some boy or girl in India or Ceylon. A gospel, 
telling the whole story of the life of Christ and the words of Christ. Is it not a good 
use to make of a penny ? 

We told Meenatchie that when she had read this gospel through, and could tell 
somethmg of what it said, we would give her a New Testament. We noticed her 
afterwarrls diligently reading it aloud to herself out of school-hours. A few days later 
she came to us, saying, "I have no hymn-book of my own, and I do wish I had 
one, so that I might learn to sing these beautiful hymns." We gave her a little book 
.containing twenty-four Christian hymns in the Tamil language. This also costs just a 
penny. The next morning, when we sang the opening hymn, Meenatchie found it in 
her new hymn-book, and began to sing with the others at the top of her voice, though 
she did not in the least know the tune : such was her eagerness to learn. I told 
her she must sing softly and listen to the others. She did this, and having naturally a 
good ear for music, she soon learned to sing very well and became a member of 
our school choir. 

A weekly prayer-meeting for members of the boarding-school is held on Friday 
afternoons. At the first prayer-meeting in the new term there was much interest 
manifested. The older girls felt the great responsibility which rested upon them with 
regard to the younger ones, many of whom had come from heathen homes, and had 
not yet given their hearts to Christ. Some of the younger girls had begun to see 
their need of a Saviour, and many earnest prayers were offered. At the close of the 
meeting, I said, "Are there not some here who would like to give their hearts to 
Christ to-day ? If so, will they not come to my room, and we will spend a little 
further time in prayer?" At once little Meenatchie came to my side, and, slipping 
her hand into mine, said, '■ Amma, I'll come." Others followed her example, and 
more than thirty girls came to my room ; many prayed with tears for themselves, 
and for the conversion of their heathen parents and relatives. It moved me 
strangely that those who had just begun to know a little of Christ's love themselves 
were longing so intensely that their parents, brothers, and sisters should know it too. 
We continued to have a second meeting for inquirers after the first for some time, 
and I think these meetings were blessed to the girls. Day by day.- as we taught 
Meenatchie, it seemed to us that her heart was opening to the truth, just as a flower 
opens to the sunlight. 
8 



98 Meenatchie the Missionary. 

After Meenatchie had been in the school a month, her father came from the islands 
to see her. As she saw him coming in at the gate she ran from the playground to 
meet him, and my sister, who was standing near, heard her say to him, " I am so 
glad to see you, O father ; I want you to become a Christian." This new-found light 
and joy was in her little heart, and she never thought of keeping it all to herself : 
she wanted her father to possess it too. She had only known of Christ one month, 
but already her heart had come in some measure into harmony with the great loving 
heart of Him who said, " Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I 
must bring." 

When Meenatchie had been two months in the school, the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper was celebrated one Sabbath in the church, and some of the older girls of the 
school were among the number received into the church-fold on profession of faith. 
Meenatchie had never seen a Communion Service before. It was all new to her. 
At its close she came to us and said, " Please tell me what they were doing in the 
church to-day." We explained that we were commemorating Christ's death, because 
He had asked those who loved Him to do so in remembrance of Him. ' She said 
eagerly, " Arama, may I join with the others next time ?" She loved Christ, and when 
she learned that He had told us lo do this, her little heart responded "yes " to His 
call ; so she said, " May I join next time ? " We told her she might join the candi- 
dates' class first of all, which she did. 

At the end of three months a brief vacation was given to the school, and before 
dismissing the girls, my sister told them she hoped that during the vacation they 
would all attend the Sabbath services in their various villages with their parents, and 
thai she hoped they would all try to be present at the great Annual Meeting of the 
mission, which was to be held at Batticotta. In giving these injunctions she did 
not think of them being carried out by Meenatchie, as her parents were Hindoos, 
and attended neither the Sabbath services nor the Annual Meetings. But Meenatchie 
never thought my sister meant her remarks for others, she was so busy taking them 
all home to herself. 

On going to her island home she took her Tamil gospel and hymn-book, and the 
first evening, after the family had eaten their evening meal of rice and curry, and were 
all seated on the veranda enjoying the quiet and bright moonlight and resting after 
the labours of the day, Meenatchie said, " When I was in the school, I learned to 
sing some sweet songs. May I sing them now?" They readily assented, for the Tamil 
people are all very fond of singing. Then the little girl sang from memory several of 
the beautiful Christian hymns which she had learned. After this she said, " In the 
school I read some good stories out of a book. May I read some of them to you 



Led by a Child. 99 

now?" They assented, as Tamil people are always very fond of stories, and often at 
this, the resting-time of the day, amuse each other by telling stories and riddles. 
Meenatchie lighted the little lamp, which is of the simplest construction — a small 
earthen vessel with oil and a bit of twisted cloth for a wick, and read to them from 
her little gospel the story of the birth of Christ. Then she said, " I learned to pray 
to the true Lord in the school, may I pray now ? " There was a dead silence in the 
family circle, as all were worshippers of idols. But the brave little girl knelt down 
and prayed aloud a simple childlike prayer, asking the true God for Christ's sake to 
forgive her sins and help her to do right, and bless her dear grandmother and father 
and mother and brothers and sisters, and help them all to know Him and love Him. 
This she did night after night all through her vacation, reading, singing, praying aloud, 
leading the family devotions by the light of a little flickering lamp— herself a little 
lamp struggling to shine for Jesus in the gloom. 

When the Sabbath came she said to her father, " The Ammas told me that I 
must go to the church on the Sabbath, father; please take me to the church." But 
the father said, " No, daughter, I cannot take you to the church ; I worship Pulliar, 
and Vedavan, and Kanther Swami, and Siva. If I went to the Christian church all the 
neighbours would laugh at me and say I had become a Christian." But she said, 
" Oh, please, fatner, take me to the church, for I promised the Amma that I would go 
to the church ; " and she began to weep so bitterly that she was unable to eat her break- 
fast. When her father saw this his heart was touched, for you must know that the fathers' 
hearts in Ceylon are just about as soft as the fathers' hearts in England or America, 
and they love their children just as well, and are as ready to make sacrifices for them. 
So the father said, "Do not cry, my little daughter ; I will go with you this one 
time." He went, and heard the singing, the reading, the prayers, the addresses by the 
native Christian catechist, noted the quiet, reverent behaviour, and had no fault to 
find ; so at the invitation of the catechist he came again the next Sabbath. 

When my sister and I went on the day appointed to the Annual Meeting at 
B.itticotta, who did we see, to our astonishment, standing in the doorway of the church, 
but the little Meenatchie with her father on one side of her and her mother on the 
other, her face radiant with joy as she said to us, " Amma, I've brought them." And so 
she had ; yielding to her daily entreaties, they had come across the water in a small boat, 
and then a good many miles on foot, and the loving earnestness of a little child had 
been the motive power. They enjoyed the Annual Meeting, and vvere much impressed 
by the services, and by the large orderly assemblage of native Christians — a striking 
contrast to the noisy crowd which surrounds the heathen temples on festival occasions. 
When the new term commenced the father and mother both came, bringing Meenatchie 



Mcefiatchie the Goddess. 



back to the school, and they brought a sheep and a botde of melted butter as a 
present, saying that their daughter had improved very much while in the school and 
had been a good girl in the vacation, and ihey wished to express their thanks to us. 
We earnestly begged the father and mother to attend the Christian church on their 
island, and they promised to do so. 

Meenatchie was received into the Christian church before the end of the year. It 
is not the custom to receive those who come from heathen homes until they have been 
in the school a longer time, but an exception was made in the case of Meenatchie, as 
all her teachers and the native pastor and the church committee felt convinced that 

she was truly a converted child, and 
that in her daily life she was trying 
to serve Christ. 

I shall never forget the look of 
joy on her face, or the shining in 
her large, beautiful black eyes, as 
she stood up to be received with 
others into the visible church. Did 
the " Father of lights " see the 
shining too, and rejoice with His 
child? The joy of that day. and of 
others like it, a hundred-fold more 
than repaid us for any little sacrifices 
we may have made in going to the 
mission-field. 

When Meenatchie was baptized 
she took the English name, Clara 
Kimball, and dropped the name 
Meenatchie, which is the name of a 
heathen goddess, whose great temple 
stands in Madura. Little Clara 
still studies in the Boarding-school, 
and we hope that when she gradu- 
ates she may go back to her island 
home, followed by your prayers, to 
be a blessing to her own people. 




A TOWER OF THE TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS MEENATCHIE. 




THE COBRA. 



■Strong drink a more deadly foe to India. " At last it 
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Liquor Traffic .\ Great Foe 
OF Missions. 

|E found the liquor traffic, autho- 
rized and licensed by the British 
Government, a great foe to 
Christian work in North Ceylon. 
The voices of Rachels weeping for their 
children and refusing to be comforted fell 
on our ears and aroused our hearts. Broken- 




hearted wives and mothers, whose husbands or sons had fallen through the drink 
curse, asked us why such temptations were placed in thei?- midst ? were these always to 
continue? must they suffer themi The Government certainly does not dream of the 
bitterness, of the sorrow and despair with which many of the natives look upon this 
absolutely ruinous traffic, thrust upon them against iheir wishes for the sake of a 
revenue. In India and Ceylon the liquor traffic is purely a Government mpjiopoly. 
The right to sell liquor in a district is sold at public auction to the highest bidder. 
When some one has bought the right and promised to give the Government a large 
sum of money for the same, he does not wish to be a loser by the transaction, so he 
opens as many liquor shops as possible in the district. These are located in the 
towns and villages near the tea and cinchona estates, in the mining districts, and on 
the roadsides along which there is most travel, and by means of these multiplied 
places of temptation "a nation of abstainers is fast becoming a nation of drunkards." 

The religions of the Hindus, Mohammedans, and Buddhists forbid the use of 
strong drink, and formerly the people of India and Ceylon were for the most part 
total abstainers. Formerly spirits were higli-priced and hard to get, and drunkenness 
was uncommon because there was little temptation to drink. But in any country it 
the facilities for obtaining strong drink are incre.ised the consumption is increased : 
if the facilities for obtaining strong drink are diminished the consumption is diminished. 
In India and Ceylon the facilities for obtaining strong drink have been abnormally 
increased. The British Government for the sake of a revenue has made strong 
drink to be cheap and plentiful. In Ceylon nine times as much is spent for strong 



I02 England's Shame in India. 

drink as is expended by the Government for education. In Bengal, where the 
" outstill " system prevails, " Bhuli " is sold for four annas and less per quart bottle. 
In that province the excise revenue has in ten years increased twenty-nine lakhs of 
rupees. In Assam the excise revenue has trebled in ten years. In the North-West 
Provinces the excise revenue has more than doubled in ten years. In the whole of 
India the excise revenue has increased in thirteen years seventy-five per cent 1 

Archdeacon Farrar said in a recent address, " It is now a considerable time ago 
that an Archdeacon of Bombayj with whom I was acquainted, gave the shocking 
testimony in public that for every Christian whom we (Great Britain) had made in 
India we had made loo drunkards." What do these figures mean? They mean that 
tens of thousands and hundred of thousands of people in India, who formerly were 
total abstainers, have fallen before the multiplied temptations placed before them. Is 
this to be wondered at? If men and women in Great Britain and America, with 
centuries of civilization behind them, with Christian influences all around them, 
cannot withstand the temptation of the open public-house and liquor saloon, how 
could it be hoped that the poor ignorant people of India could withstand such 
temptations ? Is it not a shame to place such temptations in the presence of heathen 
peoples ? It is the glory of the strong to protect the weak. Should not the great 
British nation protect rather than tempt its subject races ? It is the province of 
Government to make it easy to do right and hard to do wrong, but in India in the 
matter of this liquor traffic Government has done just the reverse. 

It has been said by a great English statesman in the House of Commons that 
" the combined evils of" war and pestilence and famine are not so great as those evils 
which flow from strong drink ; " and it has been estimated that eighty-four per cent, 
of the crime is caused either directly or indirectly by strong drink. If this be so, has 
not poor India crime enough of its own, sorrow and poverty enough of its own, without 
having this, the curse of Great Britain, imported into India and fostered there against 
the wishes of the people, for the sake of a revenue? Another of England's great 
statesmen has said, " Gentlemen, I refuse to consider a question of revenue alongside 
of a question of morals," and he has said again, " Give me sober and industrious 
people, and I will soon show you where to get a revenue." 

The Government in India for the sake of a revenue creates a class of men whose 
business it is to push the traffic in strong drink. Surely a revenue should be paid by 
men who are able to pay it. We should not tempt men to give up their purity and 
allow their homes to be destroyed for the sake of a revenue. Some one has said, " I 
feel less shame for the savage who, with lude conscience and untaught life, turns 
cannibal and picks the bones of human beings that he may live, than for those who 



Intemperance spreading in Ceylon. 



103 



stand up and plead that this traffic may exist which shall take the money out of the 
pockets of the poor, and destroy hearts and homes, in order that their own taxation 
may be lessened." 

Sometimes it is said by Englishmen when speaking of India and Ceylon, " It is 
true that the liquor shops are there, but the natives are not forced to drink." Yet we 
cannot help feeling that a great wrong is being done, because those ignorant people 
are being tempted. Is it right to tempt 2 The devil does not lorce people to do wrong, 
he only tempts, yet the devil is the devil because his bicsiness is to tempt. 

We were grieved to find that intemperance was spreading among the people in 
North Ceylon, that many were using country-made and imported liquors, that many 
families were in great sorrow because a husband, or son, or brother, having gone to 
some of the large towns in Ceylon or India and adopted the drinking customs now 
prevailing in those towns, had learned to drink. We frequently heard the most pitiful 
tales from weeping wives and mothers in many villages around us. We began to hold 
temperance meetings among our people. In so doing we felt a lack of temperance 
literature in the native language ; we had a little book of thirty-seven temperance 
hymns prepared in the Tamil language, and 5,000 copies of this book printed. We 
wished to have temperance tracts to circulate among the people ; we therefore had 
several of John B. Cough's temperance lecrures translated, and circulated in Ceylon a 
few thousand copies which had been printed ui our mission press. But as Tamil is 
spoken by sixteen millions of people in Southern India, and as we knew that drinki-ng 
habits were spreading there, and in all parts of India as well, we wished that tliese 
temperance lectures might be circulated among these millions, so that they might not 
drink blindly, but might know what ruin and degradation would follow. We therefore 
made arrangements with each of 
the five great Tract Societies of 
India to have these lectures, in 
whole or in part, translated and 
published by them in six or seven 
cjf the leading languages of India. 
The Madras Tract Society has 
also agreed to publish a temper- 
ance catechism of 137 questions 
and answers which we had had 
prepared in the Tamil language. 

We held many temperance 
meetings in our district, and at 




A WAYSIDE INN, 



I04 Abolition Demanded. 

these meetings over 1400 pledges were taken. But although we have worked earnestly 
for this cause, we feel as if tvlnle we have been trying to rescue one drunkard the liquor 
shops have bwn making ten. The petition of the World's Women's Cliristian Temperance 
Union was stnt to us for circulation. We had it translated into Tamil and Singalese 
and circulated in those languages, and in English, circulating at the^same time a some- 
what similar petition to be signed by men. We sent these petitions to various mission- 
aries in Ceylon, who gave them into the hands of their native pastors, catechists, 
teachers, and Bible-women, and they were thus circulated by responsible parties. 
The natives in general expressed great eagerness to sign the petitions. We were told 
that many Hindus signed these petitions with a prayer. Raising their hands and eyes 
10 heaven, they would say, "Thervan ethu say-ert-thume," i.e. " May the Lord prosper 
this." In traversing India in 1886 we had this petition translated and circulated in 
ten of the leading Indian languages through the medium of the five great Religious 
Tract Societies of India. We secured from India and Ceylon over 33,000 signatures to 
these petiiions. These have been forwarded to the secretary of the World's Women's 
Christian Temperance Union. We also secured the insertion of temperance articles 
in many of the leading newspapers of India, and we had the opportunity of seeing 
much of mission work, and of addressing various assemblies, mission schools, &c., 
durini^ our visit. We have great pleasure in stating that throughout this tour, in 
which we met over 2O0 missionaries and were entertained in many mission homes, 
we never saw a drop of strong drink on any missionary's table ; and we found many 
missionaries to be earnest temperance workers, having total abstinence societies in 
their churches and schools, ^^'e pray that the day may come soon when every foreign 
missionary may be a pledged total abstainer. We believe these petitions voiced the 
real desire of the people, viz. the entire abolition of the traffic. They wonder that 
the British Government is willing to take a revenue from such a source ; they remind 
us that their Hindu and Mohammedan rulers did not take a revenue from the sale of 
intoxicating drinks, but instead forbade the sale, and they suggest that Indian seas 
and Indian soil furnish better sources for obtaining a revenue than the liquor traffic ; 
they would ask the Christians of Great Britain, who have sent them the Scriptures in 
which they are taught to pray, " Lead us not into temptation," that this great 
temptation may be removed from them. Can nothing be done to give the people a 
voice in this matter which so closely affects their homes ? If the natives of Ceylon 
and India had local option in regard to this matter, they would, we believe, very 
quickly shut up these liquor shops. 

Surgeon-Major R. Pringle. M.D., of Her Majesty's Bengal Army, after thirty years 
experience in India says, " I can speak for ten millions in the North-West Provinces, 



Government fostering Evil. 105 

when I state that, if local self-government were granted, not a grog-shop would 
remain in twelve months ; the Mohammedans would not soil their fingers with rupees 
gathered by ' shame-water,' and the Hindu would gladly avail himself of the 
opportunity of showing his contempt for and disgust with ihe co-religionist whose 
thirst for silver was so great that he bought at a public auction the privilege to sell the 
Government ' shame-water.' " 

A native of India, Nduda Lai Ghosh, a Barrister-at-Law, says: " The temperance 
question is not only a question of morality, but also an economical question. About 
forty millions of i)eople in India do not have enough of food from year's end to year's 
end, and when this poison of drink is spreading among them, what will be the 
economical condition of India? We have statistics, and know well that the people 
are in abject poverty, and yet there comes the demon of drink to intensify their 
misery, introduced by a Christian Government. I do not wish to blame the 
Government too much, but I hold it is the duty of all Englishmen, who hold the 
destiny of two hundred and fifty milh'ons of their fellow-subjects in their hands, to 
stop the current of that poison, and to give to India true moral teaching instead. I 
appeal to you to abolish the poison of drink. We have municipal institutions en the 
elective and nominative basis, and I think it is high time the Government took the 
matter into serious consideration and allowed local option instead of selling licences to 
the highest bidder." 

Is tlie liquor traffic to be allowed to entrench itself in India ? Is a curse to come to 
India through this traffic similar to that which has come to China through the opium 
traffic forced upon her by the British Government ? There are those who say that the 
amount of strong drink consumed in India in proportion to the population is small 
as yet. Perhaps it is, but it is a growing evil, and this is surely cause for the gravest 
concern. When the opium traffic was begun with China, the amount sent from India 
was 200 cases, and though some protested against the traffic, the public conscience of 
Great Britain was lulled to sleep by being told " two hundred cases is a small amount. 
The traffic is a little thing." But can we ever say of any evil " It is a little thing " ? 
Now the amount sent annually from India to China is not merely 200 cases, but 
85,000 cases, containing over 5,000 tons of opium ! All this is exported from India, 
and sent to debauch the Chinese. The British Government is responsible for this 
traffic, since the opium in India is a monopoly of the Government, from 
which it derives a revenue of over ^5,000,000 annually. It has been said by 
the missionaries in China that if the people of England could see for one 
hour the poverty and wretchedness, the ruin and death caused in China 
by the use of opium, they would be horrified. What notion of the justice 



io6 The Opiwii Barrier against Christ. 

of Him who rules the world must h-e have who supposes that a nation can 
commit such exceeding wickedness and yet escape retribution ? " Be not deceived: 
God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man (or nation) soweth, that shall he 
also reap." There is no power on earth can escape from this sentence. Returned 
missionaries from China tell us that this traffic is " one huge ministry of vice," 
and is one of the greatest obstacles to the evangelization of China. When the 
poor opium victim, to satisfy his fearful craving, has sold one article after another, till 
all his property is gone, he will, in many instances, sell his children into servitude and 
his wife into a life of shame. Missionaries have told us how, powerless to interfere, 
they have stood outside of Chinese homes in the dead of night, and heard the screams 
of women and girls who were being sold by a husband or father into a life worse than 
death, because the opium-smoker must have money with which to buy the drug. 
To-day, while we sit in our comfortable homes, there are tens of thousands of families 
in China suffering unspeakable misery on account of Great Britain's dealing with that 
nation in this matter. When one of the missionaries in China was preaching to a 
company in the open-air, and speaking about hell, one in the crowd replied, " Yes, 
we know about hell : since England sent us the opium China has become a hell." 
On another occasion, when a missionary was urging some Chinese hearers to accept 
Christ, one old woman said, "Was it not your country that sent us the opium? 
Well, we don't want your opium, and we don't want your Christ." Oh I what a blot 
is thus put upon that Name which is above every name, because a so-called Christian 
nation engages in this accursed and soul-destroying traffic ! The Rev. J. Hudson 
Taylor, Director of the China Inland Mission, at the great Missionary Conference 
held in London in 1888, said, 'MVhen we look back to eighty years of missionary 
labour in China, and compare it with the results of eighty years of commmercial 
labour, I am afraid our brows must be covered with shame and our hearts filled 
with sorrow. After eighty years of missionary labour we are thankful for thirty-two 
thousand communicants. After eighty years of commercial labour there are one 
hundred and fiftj millions of the Chinese who are either personally smokers of the 
opium or sufferers by the opium vice of husband or wife, father or mother, or some 
relative. You may go through China, and you will find thousands — I can safely say 
tens of thousands — of towns and villages in which there are but small traces of the 
Bible or of Christian influence. You will scarcely find a hamlet in which the opium- 
pipe does not reign. Ah! we have, given China something besides the Gospel; 
something that is doing more harm in a week than the united efforts of all our 
Christian Missionaries are doing good in a year. Oh, the evils of opium ' The slave 
trade was bad ; the drink is bad ; the licensing of vice is bad ; but the opium tr.iffic is 




THE STACKING ROOM IN THE GOVERNMENT OPIUM FACIOKY AT PATNA. 



the sum of all villanies. It debauches more families than drink, it makes more slaves 
directly than the slave trade, and it demoralizes more lives than all the licensing 
systems in the world. Will you not pray, my friends ? I entreat you to pray to the 
mighty God that He will bring this great evil to an end. The common reason brought 
forward in extenuation of the traffic is this :—' England cannot afford to do right.' 
Now, I would say, England cannot afford to do wrong. Nay, you must not do one 
wrong thing to escape another. It is said you must not starve India in order to 
deliver China. My dear friends, it is always right to do right, and the God in 
heaven, who is the great Governor of the Universe, never created this world on such 
lines that the only way to properly govern India was to curse China. There is no 
curse in God's government. The Indian Government has taken this ground — that it 
has the right to prevent the production of opium, except at the Government factories. 
Let it add to this, that it bhall not be produced at the Government factories, and we 
ask no more." 

The late Earl of Shaftesbury well said, " Let every missionary, and every lay agent, 
and every woman, and every child, refrain from being silent upon that question " (the 



io8 British Churches Responsible. 

opium question). Henry Richards on one occasion used these words : — " I am not 
ashamed to say that I am one of those who believe that there is a God who ruleth in 
the kingdom of men, and that it is not safe for a community, any more than an 
individual, recklessly and habitually to affront those great principles of truth, and 
justice, and humanity, on which, I believe, He governs the world. And we may be 
quite sure of this, that, in spite of our pride of place and power, in spite of our vast 
possessions and enormous resources, in spite of our boasted forces by land and sea — 
if we come into conflict with that Power we shall be crushed like an egg-shell against 
a granite rock." 

This opium traffic between India and China, for which the British Government is 
responsible, is a great national sin, and, if unrepented of, will surely be loUowed by 
national judgment, for the government of God is just, the government of God is retri- 
butive, and if God calls Great Britain to an account, will He not call every man and 
W07nan in Great Britain to an account? For the nation is made up of individuals, 
and will He not hold each one responsible — not only for what they are doing, but for 
all they might do ? What makes it possible for these great evils — the liquor traffic in 
India and the opium traffic with China — to exist under British rule? Public senti- 
mentin Great Britain makes it possible. The British Government is a government by the 
people ; therefore these great evils exist because the people of Great Britain are vi-illing 
that they should exist, and the work to be done by those who love India, and China, 
and Great Britain herself, is to arouse a Christian public sentiment in Britain which 
shall demand the overthrow of these evils. Have not the Christian Churches of Britain 
the power, if they were thoroughly awake and in earnest, to create a public sentiment 
which would demand of Parliament, in the name of God and of humanity, that these 
two great iniquities should be prohibited ? They have the poiver, and if these evils go 
on in the future it will not be because the Churches of Great Britain could not %to^ 
them, but because these churches were asleep, and liwuld not stop them, and God will 
hold the Churches responsible for the continuation of these evils. 

Some one asked the venerable Dr. Beecher, " How long must the liquor traffic 
continue ? " His reply was, "■' Jtist as long as the Christian Churches are uniting that 
it should, and not a day longer.''' "'Ihe measure of our ability is the measure of our 
responsibility." Not to protest against this evil — not to act — is to acquiesce, and 
that is complicity with the evil. " To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, 
to him it is sin." We are accustomed to think that at the last day we shall be judged 
on account of what we have done. Perhaps we shall rather be judged for what we 
have failed to do. Christ has told us He will say to some at that day, " 1 was an 
hungred. and ye gave Me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink ; I was a 



Demoralization of Native Races. 109 

stranger, and ye took Me not in ; naked, and ye clothed Me not ; sick, and in prison, and 
ye visited Me not. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it 
NOT 'JO Me." 

Look at the magnitude of the evil of the liquor traffic. See, for example, what is 
going on in Africa. It has been said ihat for one missionary sent to Africa to 
evangelize its heathen tribes there are sent 70,000 barrels of rum for purposes of 
barter. It was stated in the Church Missionary Intelligencer that on 250 miles of 
coast-line in the tropical region of Africa— on the west coast — no less than twenty 
ships a year arrive there, with, on an average, a thousand tons of intoxicating drink 
on each of them. Think of it — twenty thousand tons of intoxicating drink every year 
poured in on that limited tract of country ! One of the missionaries connected with 
the Church Missionary Society says, " If this thing is continued, it is only a question 
of a few years for me and my people." Sir Richard Burton, the great African traveller, 
writes, " It is my sincere belief that if the slave trade were revived, with all its horrors, 
and Africa could get rid of the white man, with tlie gunpowder and rum which he has 
introduced, Africa would be a gainer in happiness by the exchange." Sir Charles Warren, 
late Commissioner to South Africa, has said, "The blood of thousands of natives is at 
the present time crying to heaven against the British race, and yet, from motives of 
expediency, we refuse to take any action." 

From a memorial sent out by the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union 
the following statement is made: — " It is a fully authenticated fact that, through the 
operation of a few merchants and trading companies in America, Germany, Holland, 
England, France, and Portugal, a flood of deadly, intoxicating liquor is being poured 
into the Congo Free State and the Basin of the Niger. During the year 1885 (the 
last year for which we have full statistics) more than ten million gallons of the cheapest 
and vilest spirits ever manufactured were sent from these six Christian countries to the 
ignorant savages of A'ric I." Mrs. Mary C. Hind, speaking on the subject of this 
memorial before the great Missionary Conference held in London in 1888, said: — 
" We have been trying to keep the Atlantic back with a broom too many years. We 
want to get at the great basal \mt\\, prohibition, so that the liquor does not goto these 
parts. This memorial is sent out by the W.C.T.U. of the World. They have nothing 
to do with any other parish than the world. Beloved, it is too late in the day for us 
to do anything else than sound the note of prohibition. And as to the matter of 
revenue, God forbid I should mention it. It is a burning shame to our Christian 
nations to talk about a revenue t/iat comes from the blood, and tears, and cries, and 
groans, and moans, and the damnation of thousands of precious souls. ^^ 

Is it nothing to us that whole nations are being demoralized by this iniquitous 



no A Revenue of Blood Motley. 

traffic % If some one were to tempt and ruin your sons and daughters, you would feel 
it, but these are the sons and datighters of the Living God. He made them. He cares 
for them. He gave His Son for their redemption. Will He not call professing 
Christians to account for their negligence and iqdifference towards this evil, which 
is causing the ruin of millions for whom Christ died ? Paul says : — " To the weak 
became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, 
that I might by all means save some." And he admonishes us : — " We, tlien, that 
are strong ought to bear the i?ifrmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. For 
even Christ pleased not Himself ." Remembering the ^^rijf?/ sacrifice which He made for 
us, would that those everywhere who profess His name might make the little sacrifice 
of banishing strong drink as a beverage from their tables and homes, and give the 
influence of their example, as well as their prayers and most earnest efforts, to the 
overthrowing of the great evil which is ruining so many millions of mankind. When 
Christ our Lord and Master was on this earth, He gave us the great command : — 
" Thoic shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." 
Love will not sit idly down in despair. Be the task never so gigantic, " love will find 
out a way." 

Clarkson, in contemplating the horrors of the slave trade, said to himself that " if 
these things were true, it was time that somebody should see these calamities to an 
end," and forthwith he went to work, with heart and soul and mind on fire, with an 
energy that never tired, and faith that never faltered, till God crowned his Herculean 
efforts with success. He had to work in the face of fierce opposition. Cool-headed 
and cool-hearted men pronounced against the enterprise. Boswell, in his " Life of 
Johnson," said that " to abolish the slave trade would be to shut the gates of mercy 
on mankind." We are told by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her " Sunny 
Memories," that, " As usual, the cause of oppression was defended by the most 
impudent lying. The slave trade was asserted to be the latest revised edition of 
philanthropy." 

It was said that the poor African — the slave of miserable oppression in his own 
country — was wafted by it to an asylum in a Christian land ; that the middle passage 
was to the poor negro a perfect elysium, infinitely happier than anything he had ever 
known in his own country. ■ All this was said while manacles, and handcuffs, and 
thumbscrews, and instruments to force open the mouth, were a regular part of the 
stock for a slave-ship, and were hanging in the shop windows of Liverpool for sale. 
It was perfectly well known that in very many cases slave traders made direct 
incursions into the country, kidnapped and carried off the inhabitants of whole 
villages, but the question was, how to prove it. A gentleman whom Clarkson 



Wanted — a Clarkson. Ill 

accidentally met on one of his journeys informed him that he had been in company 
about a year before with a sailor — a very respectable-looking young man —who had 
actually been engaged in one of these expeditions. He had spent half an hour with 
him at an inn. He described his person, but knew nothing of his name or place of 
abode. All that he knew was that he belonged to a ship of war in ordinary, but 
knew nothing of the post. Clarkson determined that this man should be produced as 
a witness, and knew no better way than to go personally to all the ships in ordinary 
until the individual was found. He actually visited every seaport town, and boarded 
every ship, till, in the very last port and in the very last ship which remained, the 
individual was founds and found to be possessed of just the facts and information 
which were necessary. For seven years Clarkson maintained a correspond&nce with 
400 persons with his own hand. He annually wrote a book on behalf of the cause. 
In that time he had travelled more than 35,000 miles in search of evidence. By the 
labours of Clarkson and his companions an incredible excitement was produced 
throughout all England. Pictures and models of slave-ships, accounts of the 
cruelties practised in the trade, were circulated ?w///^ aw industry which left not a man, or 
woman, or child in England laiinstructed. After the committee had published the facts 
and sent them to every town in England, Clarkson followed them up by journeying 
to all the places to see that they were read and attended to. Of the state of feeling 
at this time Clarkson writes : — " First, I may observe that there was no town through 
which I passed in which there was not some one individual who had left off the use 
of sugar. In the smaller towns there were from ten to fifty by estimation, and in the 
larger from 200 to 500 who made this sacrifice to virtue. These were of all ranks 
and parties. Rich and poor^ Churchmen and Dissenters, had adopted the measure. 
Even grocers had left off trading in the article in some places. In gentlemen's 
families where the master had set the example the servants had often voluntarily 
followed it, and even children who were capable of understanding the history of the 
sufferings of the Africans excluded, with the most virtuous resolution, the sweets to 
which they had been accustomed from their lips. By the best computation I was 
able to make from notes taken down in my journey, no fewer than 300,000 persons 
had abandoned the use of sugar." It was the reality, depth, and earnestness of the public 
feeling thus roused which pressed with resistless force upon the Government, for the Govern- 
ment of England yields to popular demands quite as readily as that of America. 
After years of protracted struggle, the victory was at last won. The slave trade was 
finally abolished throughout the British Empire. At this time the religious mind and 
conscience of England gained through this very struggle a power which it has never 
lost. The principle adopted by them was the .same so sublimely adopted by the 



1 1 2 TJie Victory Sure. 

Church in America with reference to the foreign missionary cause : " The field is the 
world ! " Shall not those who love the Lord J esus Christ and care for the welfare ol 
their fellow-men, encouraged by the example of such heroic toilers as Clarkson, -work 
7i.nth like self-denying earnestness, unwavering faith, and whole-hearted devotion toward 
the emancipation of their brothers and sisters, all the world around, from a more 
fearful slavery, the slavery of strong drink and opium, by the entire abolition of these 
traffics ? We believe in the possible and final overthrow of these traffics, just because 
we believe in God. We have the glorious promise that one day " the earth shall be 
full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover ihe sea." Let us work in hope, 
because, " if God be for us, who can be against us ? " Though few in numbers, we 
are not in the minority ; we are in the majority, for " one with God is a majority." 

" History's pages but record 

One deatfi-grapple in the darkness, 
'Twixt old systems and the Word. 
Truth for ever on the scaffold — 
Wrong for ever on the tlirone. 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, 
And behind the dim unlcnown 
Standeth God within the shadow. 
Keeping watch above His own." 

If He is but watching over us and caring for the cause so dear to us, then we cari 
labour on in boundless hope, knowing that the truth and the right are sure to prevail. 
" He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth." 
Christ taught His disciples to pray, " Thy kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven." All down the ages men and women have been praying that 
prayer. Would Christ have taught us to pray that prayer if He had never intended 
to answer it ? Surely He is the hearer and anszverer of prayer. Surely He means to 
answer that prayer, and the time will come when men on earth will do His will 
according to their measure, as the angels do it in heaven. One day the glorious vision 
foreseen by the beloved disciple shall be realized. " The kingdoms of this world are 
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and 
ever." (Rev. xi. 15.) Those who in Christ's name and for His sake are working for 
the ennobling and the purifying of humanity are " labourers together with God," and 
the victory they fight for is sure. 

'' There is no hopeless sorrow ; 
Wrong ever builds a tottering throne, 
And CInist shall reign to-morrow." 




THE MISSES LEITCH AND A GROUP OF JMATIVE CHKiSlIANS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Farewell Address from the Native Christians. 



jEAR MISSIONARY FRIENDS,— We are ass-embled here to trespass a 
little on your valuable time on the eve of your departure home, and desire 
to be allowed to give expression to the sentiments of respect and esteem we 
entertain for you. 

Your connection for the past seven years with the American Ceylon Mission, and 
consequently with the Christians and other residents of Manepy and Panditerippu whom 
9 




114 Farewell. 

we represent, we are happy to say, has been altogether pleasant and successful in a 
missionary point of view. 

' You have always evinced a deep interest both in our spiritual and temporal welfare, 
and the occasions in which your guidance and advice and prompt help have benefited 
us have been many. The progress our young men and women especially have made 
through your efforts in several departments of social Christian life is prized by us 
highly. The catholic spirit with which you went through your work, and the tolera- 
tion of views that we noticed in you in all your dealings with us, have been two pro- 
minent points of admiration to us. Your presence in the schools where our youths 
are taught, in our church meetings, improvement societies, youths' associations, &c., 
have inspired always a new life into them. It may not be amiss to mention that 
you have made the Christmas-tree a regular institution with the Sunday-school 
children. Christian and heathen, for whose efficient training in Bible knowledge we are 
much indebted to you. 

Your efforts to spread a taste for Christian music, both vocal and instrumental, in 
our district, and your work in connection with the temperance movement, and the 
Endowment Fund of the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-school, will by themselves repay 
all the sacrifice you made in leaving your home on a missionary enterprise. But it is 
unnecessary here to mention the numerous ways through which your missionary spirit 
and social kindness have shone in our midst, and above all the meekness and 
patience with which you have reflected the life and doings of the Great Master. All 
these, dear friends, we assure you will ever be remembered by us with heart-felt 
gratitude and thankfulness. 

Although your short absence from our midst will be felt by us, we hope your trip 
home (" Home, Sweet Home ") will eventually prove beneficial to Christian work here, 
when, in the providence of God, you may return with redoubled energy and health. 

We would take this opportunity to tender our compliments to your dear brother, 
Mr. G. W. Leitch, who had, we are sorry to say, to cut short his work amongst us. At 
the same time we would send through you our hearty thanks to the Christian churches 
in America, which have contributed their mites towards Christianizing this land, and 
ask of them still to continue in their wrestlings for us before the throne of Grace, as 
the work already accomplished in Jaffna will not bear comparison with the mountains, 
of Satan's raising, that are yet to be removed. 

We also beg you to accept the accompanying presents of two Tamil Bibles, as tokens 
of remembrance from us. We will not take up more of your time how, but wish you 
a safe voyage forth and back, and a hearty good-bye. 



115 



FAREWELL LYRIC No. i. 

( Translation from the Tamil.') 
. O gentle ladies, who have come from a distant 

land ; i 

Who have left relatives and friends for our 

sake ; 
Wlio have come over in ships and boats ; 
Who have shown us the path to the distant 

world ; 
How shall we bear it if you leave us ? How 

shall we bear it .■' 

O pious and chaste ladies ; O pure treasures ; 

Who have opened schools in different places ; 

Who have taught sinners the way of redemp- 
tion ; 3- 

How shall we bear it if you leave us? How 
shall we bear it ? 

We have prospered by the good done by you ? 
It is difficult to reward you; 
We bless you, O dear jewels ; 
We have been brought to life ; 4. 

We will not forget you ; 
We have come to thank you iieartily ; 
How shall we bear it when you leave us ? 
How shall we bear it ? 



FAREWELL LYRIC No. 2. 

( Translation from the Tamil. ) 

. O ladies, good mothers. 
Good-bye to you. 
We prostrate ourselves at your golden feet. 
Good-bye to you. 

Your love did bind us like a cord. 
We cannot bear separation. 
The moment for which has come. 
Good-bye to you. 

You dealt with us like parents ; 
You forgave us our faults ; 
•You fed us with knowledge ; 
We bid you good-bye lovingly ; 
Good-bye to you. 

Our spirit trembles, we faint : 

We have lost our comfort ; 

Yet it seems necessary that you should go. 
We bid you good-bye lovingly ; 
Good-bye to you. 





CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Eliza Agnew, or one Woman's Work in 

THE FOREIGX FlELD. 



O' 



THE TRAVELLERS I'AL.M. 



jNE day the teacher in a day-school in 
New York Cit)', while giving a lesson in 
geography, pointed out to her pupils the heathen 
and the Christian lands, and she must have 
spoken some very earnest words to them, for then and there a little girl, eight years of 
age, named Eliza Agnew, resolved that, if it were God's will, she would be a missionary 
when she grew up, and help to tell the heathen about Jesus. She never forgot this 
resolve. Until she was thirty years of age she was detained at home, because there 
were near relations who needed her care. But when she had reached that age, and 
her dear ones had been called away from earth to heaven, she was free to leave her 
home, and she went as a missionary to Ceylon. 

Some years before this, when the first missionaries reached North Ceylon, they 
could not find, among the more than 300,000 people there, a single native woman or 
girl who could read. There were a few men and boys who could read, but the people 
did not think it worth while to teach the girls. They said, " What are girls good for, 
excepting to cook food? " &:c. " Besides," they said, "girls could not learn to read 
any more than sheep." The missionaries said to them, " You are mistaken. Girls 
can learn to read as well as boys." So they opened mission day-schools not only for 
boys, but for girls also. 



Beginning of the Boarding school. 



U7 



Though the parents willingly allowed their sons to attend these schools, they were 
very unwilling to let their daughters remain long enough to receive an education, as it 
was common for parents to give their daughters in marriage when they were only 
ten or twelve years of age. Seeing this, one of the missionary ladies wished to 
commence a boarding-school for girls. Slie wished to have the native girls separated 
from the influences of their heathen homes, and brought under daily Christian 
influence. But none of the people would send their daughters to her. 

One day there were two little girls playing in the flower-garden in front of the 
missionary's house at Oodooville. Ceylon is in the tropics, only nine degrees north 
of the equator. In North Ceylon there are two seasons, the " wet " and the " dry." 
The dry season lasts nine months, and during that time there is scarcely any rain ; 
but in the wet season, November, December, and January, it rains nearly every day, 
and sometimes the rain falls in torrents — between nine and ten inches have been 
known to fall in twenty-four hours. While these two little girls were playing, there 




TAMIL GIRLS IN A BOARDING-SCHOOL. 



iiS Forty-three Years without a Holiday. 

came on a heav}' shower of rain, and as they had not time to go home, they ran for 
shelter into the missionary's house. It continued to rain all that afternoon and 
evening, and the little girls became very hungry and began to cry. The missionary 
lady gave them bread and bananas. The younger girl ate, but the older girl refused to 
eat. After a time, when the rain ceased a little, the parents went to look for their 
daughters. They had supposed they would be in some neighbour's house, but found 
them in that of the missionary. When they heard that the younger one had eaten, 
they were very angry, for they said, " She has lost caste." They found fault with the 
missionary lady, and the mother said, " You have given my child food, and it has 
broken caste and is polluted, and now we shall not be able to arrange a marriage for 
it. What shall we do? You may take the child and bring it up." 

The missionary lady had been wishing for native girls to come to her, whom she 
might educate in a boarding-school, and here was a mother actuallv saying she might 
take her daughter, so the missionary lady thought that perhaps this was the Lord's 
way of enabling her to start the boarding-school. She took the little girl, fed and 
clothed her, and began teaching her the 247 letters of the Tamil alphabet. She 
sprinkled a little sand on the floor of the veranda, and taught the child to write the 
letters in the sand. By-and-by, some of the playmates of this little girl came to see 
her, and when they saw her writing the letters in the sand, they thought that this was 
some kind of new play, and they also wanted to learn. The Tamil children have 
good memories, and in a very short time they committed to memory the 247 letters 
of the alphabet, and were able to read. Their parents seeing this, and that the little 
girl was well cared for and happy, soon began to entrust more of their daughters to 
the care of the missionary lady. This was the beginning of the Oodooville Girls' 
Boarding-school, which was, perhaps, the first boarding-school for girls in a heathen 
land, having been commenced in 1824. 

After Miss Agnew went to Ceylon, she became the head of this boarding-school. 
She remained in Ceylon for forty-three years without once going home for a rest or a 
change. AVhen friends would ask her, " Are you not going to America for a vacation ? " 
she would always reply, " No ; I have no time to do so. I am too busy." Through 
all those forty-three unbroken years, during which God granted to her remarkable 
health, she was too busy even to think of going home. 

In the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-school she taught the children, and even some of 
the grandchildren, of her first pupils. More than 1000 girls have studied under her. 
She was much loved by the girls, who each regarded her as a mother, and she was 
poetically called by the people, " The mother of a thousand daughters." During the 
years she taught in the school more than 600 girls went out from it as Christians. We 





believe that no girl 
having taken its whole 
course has ever gradu- 
ated as a heathen. Most 
of these girls came from 
heathen homes and 
heathen villages, but in 
this school they learned 
of Christ and of His 
great love, and surren- 
dered their young hearts 
to Him. 

Miss Agnew lived 
with us in our home the 
last two years of her life, 
when she had grown 
feeble and was no longer 
able to retain the charge 
of the boarding-school. 
We felt her presence in our home to be a daily blessing. 

Near the close of her brief illness, and when we knew that she had not many hours 
to live, one of the missionaries present asked her if he should offer prayer. She 
eagerly assented. He asked, " Is there anything for which you would like me specially 
to pray ? " She replied, " Pray for the women of Jaffna, that they may come to Christ." 
She had no thought about herself. All through her missionary life she had thought 
very little about herself. Her thought was for the women of Jaffna, that they 
might knoio Christ; that they might know that in Him they had an Almighty 
Saviour, a great burden-bearer, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, one who had 
borne their griefs and carried their sorrows and could give their troubled, hungry. 



THREE GENERATIONS. 



1 20 The Passing of Miss Agiiew. 

sorrowing hearts His men peace. At the very time when she was asking prayers for the 
women of Jaffna, every room in our house was filled with native Christian women 
who, when girls, had been her pupils, and they were praying for her — that if it were the 
Lord's will to take her then to Himself, He would save her from suffering and pain. 
God heard their prayer, and she passed away like one going into a sweet sleep. The 
attendance at the funeral service was very large. Many native pastors, catechists, 
teachers, lawyers, Government officials and others, the leading men of Jaffna Peninsula, 
who had married girls trained in the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-school, came to the 
funeral service, bringing their wives and children. As we looked over that large 
audience and saw everywhere faces full of love and eyes full of tears, and knew that to 
hundreds of homes she had brought the light and hope and joy of the Gospel, we 
could not help thinking how precious a life consicrated to Clirist may be. 

In hundreds of villages in Ceylon and India there is just such a work waiting 
to be done by Christian young women as that which, with God's blessing, Miss 
Agnew accomplished in the Jaffna Peninsula. Heathen lands are open to-day as 
they have never been open before. The women of heathen lands need the Gospel. 
The stronghold of heathenism is in the homes. Many of the men in India have to 
some extent lost faith in their old superstitious creeds, but the women, who are secluded 
in the homes, cling to the heathen worship. What else can they do? They must 
cling to something, and the majority of them have not heard of Christ. They are teach- 
ing the children to perform the heathen ceremonies, to sing the songs in praise of the 
heathen gods, and thus they are moulding the habits of thought of the coming 
generation. Some one has truly said, " If we are to win India for Christ, we must lay 
our hands on the hands that rock the cradles, and teach Christian songs to the lips 
that sing the lullabies, and if we can win the motliers of India to Christ, \\zx future sons 
will soon be brought to fall at the feet of their Redeemer." 

There are in India 120 millions of women and girls. How many lady missionaries 
are there working among these ? In the report of the last Decennial Conference, the 
number is given as 480, counting those of all Protestant missionary societies. Might 
not more be sent to that great work? We are told that there are a million more 
women than men in Great Britain. Could not many of these be spared from their 
homes, and could not some possessed of private means go on a selfsupporting 
mission to this great field? 

Think of the 2 1 millions of widows in India. What a terrible lot is theirs ! They 
are regarded as under a curse. They are doomed to innumerable hardships. It is 
deemed meritorious to heap abuse upon them. It is thought the gods are angry with 
them, and that the death of their husbands is a punishment on them for some sin 



Work for Women. 121 

committed either in this or in some previous hfe. 
Their lot is so hard to bear that again and again 
they have said to the missionaries, " Why did the 
EngUsh Government take from us the right to be 
burnt on the funeral pyre with our dead husbands ? 
for that were better than what we have to endure." 
But Christian women could give to these widows 
of India the Gospel with its message of hope, and 
before the brightness of its shining the darkness of 
their despair would flee away. The knowledge of 
the love of Christ would help them to bear their 
otherwise intolerable burdens. Let us remember 
that Christ has told us that whatsoever service we 
render to the least of His little ones. He will 
regard it as done to Him, and that whatever we 
leave undone of that which was in our power to 
do, He will regard the neglect and slight as shown 
to Him. Are there not many in darkness to-day 
who might have had the Gospel had Christians done 
what they could for them ? 

Failure to realize responsibility does not diminish 
it. Zenanas which forty years ago were locked 
and barred are to-day open. Especially is this 

the case in towns where there are Christian colleges. Wherever the Hindu men have 
been educated in these mission colleges, they are now willing and even desirous that 
their wives, daughters, and sisters should be taught. We have been told by Hindu 
gentlemen, that there are many educated men in India to-day who are convinced of 
the truth of Christianity, and would confess Christ, were it not that a wife or mother, 
who has never been instructed about Christ, would bitterly oppose their doing so. 

Shall not Christian women, who owe so much to Christ, be foremost in doing the 
work allotted to them ? What a consummate blunder to live selfishly in this generation ! 
Are we giving the best we have to Christ and to His cause? Christ says, " Whosoever 
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." Did 
Christ only mean that for those who lived hundreds of years ago, or does He mean 
those words for us to-day ? In the presence of a thousand million heathens and 
Mohammedans needing the Gospel, with multitudes in heathen lands losing faith in 
their old beliefs and asking for the new, does He not mean those words to-day ? 




MOTHER AND BARES. 



122 Grander than the HallelujaJt Cliorus. 

Does He not ask that our time, our money, our influence, our friendships, and our 
eniii-e possessions should be laid at His feet, consecrated to His service, placed 
absolutely at His disposal ? Opportunities such as we have to-day, if neglected, may 
not come again. 

It is said that when the decisive hour in the battle of Waterloo came, the English 
troops were lying in the trenches, waiting for the onslaught of the enemy. They had 
been ordered not to fire until the French were close upon them, and while they lay 
there in silence, Wellington rode up and down the lines saying over and over again, 
"What will England say to you if you falter now?" One old officer declared that 
he said it a thousand times, but it is no matter how many times he said it, it was 
burned into those waiting troops till they felt as if they were lying under the very walls 
of Parliament, and when the command was given, " Now up, and at them," every man 
felt that the honour of England was in his hands, and he was invincible. 

Do we not hear the voice of a greater Leader sayings " Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life"? What will the result be if we falter now, if 
Christians are worldly now, if they are Christians only in name but not in deed, if they 
only say " Lord, Lord," but do not the things which Christ says ? What will Christ 
think of us if we are not brave and true now ? 

Let us, at Christ's command, be ready to go forward, for the battle is not ours, but 
Christ's. Surely we will do well to place ourselves on His side, for we know that in the 
end His cause shall prevail. We know that all darkness and every evil thing shall be 
swept away, and that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our 
Lord and of His Christ. Lord Northbrook recently, at the meeting of the Church 
Missionary Society, referred to his feelings at hearing Handel's " Hallelujah Chorus " 
sung. He said it was not so much the music as the words and thoughts that thrilled 
him. The greatest of all musical creations was inspired by the faith that from sea to 
sea, and to the ends of the earth, His dominion shall extend, and that from every 
part of this earth shall yet arise the choral shout, " Hallelujah, for the Lord God 
Omnipotent reigneth." That is the grander chorus, of which Handel's Hallelujah is 
but the faint and distant anticipation. It will combine the voices of all loyal, loving 
saints of all ages, nor is there in all the world, in the obscurest hovel of poverty, one 
humble sbullhat prays "Thy Kingdom come," that lays consecrated offerings on the 
altar of missions, who shall not join that final anthem as one who has helped forward 
the great consummation 





CHAPTER XXIX. 

TOPSY AND THE FaKIR WOMAN. 

OPSY was the name given playfully by a 
missionary lady in Midnapore, India, to 
a little girl in her orphanage (whose real 
name was Sudean), because, like the 
Topsy in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," she seemed as fall 
of mischief as an egg is full of meat. Her ingenious 
pranks and practical jokes, perpetrated with a face of 
intense gravity, caused her school-mates and teachers 
much annoyance, and drove the missionary lady 
almost to her wits' 



end, because she 
feared that her 
example might 
prove contagious 
among the others. 
Yet the lady could 
not dismiss her, 
for the child, like 
most others in the 
school, was a 
famine orphan, 
without father or 
mother or a home 
of her own, saved 
from starvation by 
the kindness of 
the missionaries. 



124 ^ Learned Fakir Woman. 

One Sabbath, when the missionary was preaching about Christ's death on the cross 
for us, he noticed Topsy, usually so restless, sitting strangely quiet, and two great 
tears gathering in her large lustrous eyes, which were fixed upon him. That night 
Topsy gave her heart to the Saviour who had so loved her as to lay down His hfe for 
her. The Good Shepherd had sought and found another of His restless straying 
lambs. The missionary and his wife rejoiced that night that their labours had not been 
in vain. From being their greatest cause of anxiety, Topsy became little by little a real 
comfort and blessing to the orphanage. All her restless energy seemed now turned 
into channels of service. She asked and obtained permission to go out every day 
after school hours with an aged Bible-woman, to help her to teach the Bible lessons 
and Christian hymns to the Zenana women whom she visited. 

One day as they were going through the streets, the httle girl walking a step or two 
behind the Bible-woman, as is often the custom in India, Topsy espied a very strange- 
looking object seated by the roadside on a tiger skin. It was a fakir woman. She 
was dressed in a very odd yellow dress, her hair all matted as if it had never been 
combed, her face and arms rubbed with sacred ashes, her neck loaded with numerous 
necklaces of a kind of sacred nut which fakirs wear, and those who passed by stopped 
to worship her as a goddess, giving her money, and rubbing the dust from her feet 
and placing it as something sacred upon their foreheads. Topsy sat down beside her 
and asked her if she had ever heard about Christ. The fakir woman said she had 
not, so Topsy began to tell her the story, but before she had finished, the Bible-woman, 
who had gone on for some distance without missing Topsy, came back to look for 
her in some alarm, and when she found her, blamed her for stopping behind. Topsy 
in great distress said to the fakir woman, " 1 can't stop to tell you the rest now, but 
if you will come to the house where the missionary lives, this evening, he will be at 
home then, and he will tell you all about it much better than I can. Be sure to come. 
I will tell him to expect you." When the Bible-woman and Topsy returned from their 
daily rounds, Topsy told the missionary about the strange woman who was coming to 
see him ; and though he hardly expected her, sure enough she came, drawn by the 
magic earnestness of the little girl. Was it not God's answer to the child who prayed 
and now watched for her appearance ? 

The missionary received her kindly, and when she was seated told her about Christ 
and what He had done for us. The fakir woman had never heard this before. He 
discovered that she was a Brahminee named Chandra Lilavati, and possessed a 
remarkable education, being able to read in four different languages, viz. Nepalese, Origa, 
Bengalee, and Hindi, and familiar with many of the sacred books of the Hindus. 
Her husband, who had been a noted man, a learned Brahmin Pundit, had instructed her 



Seeking to Undo. 125 

and since his death she had wandered during many years all over India on pilgrimages, 
visiting numerous shrines and temples, and everywhere, on account of her learning and 
piety, she was worshipped as a goddess. The missionary gave her a gospel in the 
language most familiar to her, and she went away, only to return again and again, to 
learn more and more, until she was led to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and to 
accept Him as her Saviour. On the day when she publicly professed her faith and 
was baptized, throngs of people came to witness the ceremony, and to see her whom 
they had formerly worshipped as a goddess renounce all her worldly honours and 
privileges, and give up her lucrative profession to become a humble follower of Jesus. 

After this she begged to be allowed to come daily while the missionary was instruct- 
ing his class of young Theological Students, and to listen to his words. This was 
granted to her, and day by day she was found sitting at the missionary's feet with her 
large-print Bible open on her lap, studying the sacred pages as he tried to expound 
the precious truths contained in them. It was an inspiration to the missionary to 
look at her eager, upturned face. Among all his students there was not one who 
followed him more closely, or who searched the Scriptures more earnestly than she, to 
see whether these things were so. 

When the students were ready to enter upon their work, he said to the woman, "If 
you would like to become a Bible-woman, I would provide you with a house and give 
you a salary sufficient to meet your Hving expenses ; " but she answered, " No, no, I must 
go back, and in every city wliere I have told tlie wrong story, I must tell the right one." 
And she who had so long been an object of worship and received every honour and 
attention, lifted up and placed on her head the heavy basket of Bibles and tracts 
and religious books with which she had begged the missionary to supply her, and 
started on foot, though an old woman with white hair, to revisit the cities she had 
previously visited, and put right what in ignorance she had put wrong. 

The missionary heard of her from time to time in Calcutta, Burdwan, Monghir, 
Lucknow, Cawnpore, Delhi, and other cities in India, the missionaries in these 
places writing that she had visited them and greatly revived and stimulated their native 
Christian people by her presence and words, causing great astonishment among 
the Hindus who had formerly known and worshipped her as a very holy and learned 
fakir. From time to time she returned to the missionary at Midnapore, bringing 
back at the end of each journey every penny of the value of the books which she 
had carried away, and, asking for and obtaining a new supply, she again and again set 
off on her journey ings, rejoicing in God who had called her to this His work, and 
who sustained her in it by the conscious presence of His Spirit in her heart. 




CHAPTER XXX. 

Dasammah, the Little Heroine. 

I SHOULD like to tell about a girl who studied in a mission school m India. I 
■will call her Dasammah, though that was not her real name. When she came 
to the mission school she was about twelve years of age. She was married, but her 
husband allowed her to attend school. She was a very modest girl, and used to 
take her seat back in a corner, and draw her cloth closely over her face, so that she 
should not be much noticed. AVhen questions were asked of her she seemed to be 
very timid about answering, but the missionary lady noticed that when she was teaching 
the Bible lesson, this girl seemed always to lean forward and to be drinking in every 
word. One day when Dasammah went home she told her husband that she did not 
believe that the idols which they worshipped were true gods, but that she believed 
that Jesus Christ was the true Saviour. When her husband heard this he was much 
alarmed, for he feared she would become a Christian. So the next morning he said 
to her, " Get your things ready quickly ; I'm going to take you to live at my mother's 
house ; be ready to leave in an hour." 

If you who read these lines were to be told that you were to leave your home and 
go to a distant village to live, and that you were to be ready to start in an hour, what 
are the things you would select to take with you? This girl thought of her Bible. 
But she must not be seen in the street at that time in the morning. So she called a 
little neighbour girl of lower caste, and said to her, " Run quickly to the missionary's 
house and get that book we study in the school — the Bible." And the little girl ran to 
the missionary's house and got a Bible and brought it to Dasammah, and she hid it m 
her cloth, and that was the on^y thing she took with her when she went to a distant 
village to live with her husband's mother. She was the only Christian in that village ; 
there was not a missionary there, or a native pastor, or a native Christian. But day 
by day she studied her Bible, and day by day the Christ of whom it told became more 
real and more precious to her. 



" I am a Christian." 127 

After a time her husband died suddenly, and then, as is the custom in India, her 
relatives treated her very cruelly, and charged her with the death of her husband, 
saying she had used charms or something which had caused his death. The girl said 
that she had done nothing to cause the death of her husband, but that it was the 
will of God that he should die at that time. Then they said, "It is because you have 
given up worshipping our gods, and are worshipping the Christian God. Now you 
must come back and worship our gods, and promise that you will not become a 
Christian." The girl said, " Oh, how can I promise that ? 1 do believe in Christ. I 
am a Christian." They spoke with her many times on the subject^ but she could only 
give them the one answer — " I a;« a Christian." 

One day the men of the house banished all the women to the women's apartments, 
and taking this litde girl out into the yard, drove four stakes into the ground, and 
tied the girl's hands and feet to these stakes. Then they said to her, " Now we will 
bring fire and burn your feet, unless you promise that you'll not become a Christian." 
And the girl answered, " I do believe in Christ. T am a Christian.'' They put the 
fire to her feet and let it burn them, and the pain was very great. Then they said to 
her, " Now will you promise that you'll not become a Christian ? " The girl answered, 
" Oh, I cannot promise, I am, / am a Christian." Surely He who walked with the 
three children of Israel in the burning, fiery furnace, was with this poor girl, and 
strengthened her in the hour of her great trial. After a time, the pain was so great she 
could not bear it, and she fainted away. When the men saw that, they were afraid 
she would die, and that the English Government might call them to account for their 
conduct. So they untied her hands and feet, and then carried her away into a dark 
room, and left her there. In the middle of the nig"ht consciousness returned to her, 
and she got up and felt for the door, and found it was open. She went out and 
made straight for the missionary's house. It took her that night, and the nextday, and 
late into the next night, to reach it. She walked part of the way, as well as she could, 
on her poor sore feet, and when she could not travel thus any further, she got down 
and crawled on her hands and knees. When she came to the missionary's house, she 
knocked. The missionary lady came to the door and looked at the girl, but did not 
recognize her, she was so covered with dust and looked so wretched. She said to 
the girl, "Who are you?" The girl told her. Then she asked, "Why did you 
come ? " The girl said, " / believe on tlie Lord Jesus C/irist, a7id I want to be baptized." 

The missionary lady took her in, and when she saw what a condition her feet were 
in, she was very sorry for her. She dressed her feet, and all the time she was doing 
this the girl never uttered a single murmur or complaint, but only said, " Oh, how 
good you are ! how you must love Jesus Christ, to be so kind to a poor girl like me !'' 



128 



She Desired to tell Others. 



After a time her feet healed, and she said to the missionary lady, " You have a 
Bible-woman who visits in the homes and teaches the women ; I should so like to 
help her to tell the women about Christ. I could live on very little, all I should want 
would be rice and salt ; two shi[lings a month would be quite sufficient to buy my food. 
If you could find some one who would pay that for me, I would spend my whole 
time teaching the women in the homes." The missionary lady furnished her with the 
needed means, and she is now a Bible-woman, and very happy in her work. This 
girl had only known about Christ a short time^ but He was very precious to her, and 
she desired to tell others about Him. 

I wonder if you who read these lines love Christ as much^ and if you are letting 
your light shine as brightly. If Christ were to stand before you in bodily form, and 
say to you as He said to His disciples, ^' As My Father hath sent Me, even so send 1 
you" how would you feel in His presence? Would you be able to look into His 
dear face and say, '■^ Lord Jesus, I do desire to be in the world as Thou wast in the 
world. Make me more and tnore to be like Thee I' 





OTLEV HALL, JAFFNA CuLLEGE. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 




The Jaffna College. 

\HE Jaffna College, situated at Battkotta in North Ceylon, is, as far as we 
know, the first attempt of a Christian cot?iintmity in a heathen land to 
establish a college of their own. 

It originated in a spontaneous effort, made by the native Christians of 
[aff7ia in 1867, to establish a Christian College, which should give a superior 
education both in the English and vernacular languages. A meeting of educated 
Tamils was called, and was largely attended. At this meeting a scheme was 
adopted, and a committee appointed to collect funds and take initiatory steps 
toward establishing a Christian College. Principally through the efforts of this 
native committee, ^^1700 were raised in Ceylon — a large sum, when it is remembered 
that in Jaffna the wage of a labouring man is only sixpence a day. The people of 
America, hearing of this effort on the part of the native Christians, and believing those 
most worthy of help who try to help themselves, contributed ^6000, and the 



I30 



Dr. Hastings. 



American Board of Missions gave, for the use of the College, land and buildings 
worth ^5000 

Early in 1872 the College was started under the general management and control of 
a Board of Directors. This Board of Directors is at present composed of the senior 
missionaries of tlie three Missions working in Jaffna, namely, the Church of Englatid 
Mission, the Wesleyan Mission, and the American Mission ; along with the Government 
Agent of the Northern Province, and representative native Christian gentlemen of the 
cotnmunity. 

The Jaffna College, it will be noted, is not a denominational institution. It is not 
controlled by any one missionary body, though it has the sympathy and direction of 
the three missionary societies which ire at work in Jaftha. // is a thoroughly Christian 
institution The Rev. E. P. Hastings, M.A., D.D., who had been for twenty-five years 
a missionary of the American Mission in Jaffna, was invited to preside over the institu- 
tion as its first Prmcipal, and he continued to fill the office with great acceptance for 
seventeen years. His unwearied devotion for over forty years to the people of Jaffna 
enabled him to win the confidence 
and affection of the whole com- 
munity. Having resigned his posi- 
tion in June, 1889, the Rev. S. W. 
Howland, M.A., for sixteen years a 
missionary of the American Mission 
in Jaffna, was chosen as his suc- 
cessor. 

Besides the Principal, there are 
in the College two foreign professors 
who hold the degree of B.A., and 
five able native professors, all of 
whom are Christians. There has 
never been a heathen teacher employed 
in the College, and it is hoped tJiere 
never will be, for it is believed that 
one heathen teacher in an institu- 
tion like this could undo the work 
of many Christian teachers. It is 
desired that this be first of all a 
Christian College, with the current 
all one way. 




REV E. r, IIA.'STINGS, D.D., 
lineteen years Principal of Jaffna College. 




A PROFESSOR AND STUDENTS IN JAFFNA COLLEGE. 



There are at present 167 students, with seven teachers, in the High School, a pre- 
paratory school for the College, and about 100 students in the College itself. 
It is a rule of the College that all the students reside on the premises. They are 
thus separated from heathen influejice, and are wider the strongest Christian influence 
continuously, refraining froin all heathen practices, even from wearing the idolatrous 
marks on their foreheads. Yet so great is the desire for education in the community, 
and so highly is the education prized which is given, that many Hindu young men of 
high-caste are willing to enter this Christian College as boarders, paying the full cost 
of board, also ^\ as entrance fee, and £,2, for tuition annuall}'. These high-caste 
Hindu young men are accustomed to eat, sleep, and live with the Christian students, to 
hi present at morning and evening prayers, to study the Bible daily, to attend the 
weekly prayer-meetings, also Sabbath-school, church service, and Bible-class on 
Sabbath. 

So greatly has God blessed the College that, of the 326 ivho have entered its doors, 
142 have gone out into the world as professed Christians and communicants ; others have 
professed Christ <ifier leaving the College, a7id the majority of tlie nearly 100 students at 



132 A Preacher s Fay and Frospects 

present in the College are Christians. Many of the graduates of the institution have 
become pastors, catechists, and teachers, fwt only in missions in Ceylon, but also in India. 

It has been said, " IVhatever you would put into the life of a nation, put into its 
schools." The teachings of Christ are given the first place in the College, and He is 
held up as the one perfect model for imitation. His words, " I- came not to be 
ministered unto^ but to minister," and " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
Me," are sounded as the key-note for every one who would make his life harmonize 
with the Divine ideal. 

There is in the College an active Young Men^s Christian Association. The members 
of this association not only labour for the conversion of the Hindu students in 
the College, but also do much valuable work outside. On Sabbath afternoons they 
regularly go out and conduct six Sabbath schools in the neighbouring villages. These 
Sabbath schools are attended by nearly 400 children. Not content with this, they 
have originated and for ihe past three or four years supported a school in an island 
lying near Jaffna, called Ninathevu. They have built a school-bungalow, and have 
paid for several years the whole salary of the teacher. It may be interesting to know 
how the young men are able to raise the money for his support. There is a piece of 
land belonging to the college grounds which the members of the Y.M.C.A. cultivate 
as a garden, selling the produce for the benefit of the school ; and while some of their 
companions are playing cricket or other games in the recreation hours, they are hard 
at work, hoeing, watering, walking the well-sweep, &c., &c. 

A number of young men, graduates of the College, have studied theology and 
entered upon evangelistic work. Were they to engage in secular employment under 
the Government, they might expect to receive a salary of from ;^5 to ^10 a month, 
with a prospect of promotion, but they have voluntarily chosen the work of preachers 
of the Gospel, with a salary of jQi \os. to begin with, and a prospect of not more 
than jQt, or ^^, as few pastors in Jaffna receive more than ^^4 a month as salary. 
We feel that they have made this choice out of love to Christ, and a desire to serve 
Him. They show a similar spirit to that shown by a Burmese boatman who, when 
converted, was earning ;£6 a month. Perceiving that he was a ready speaker and clever 
withal, the missionary said to him one day : ''Can you give up your business and 
preach to your countrymen ? I may be able to give you half-a-pound a month for 
this. Can you do it?" The man thought a moment, then replied with a beaming 
face and tears in his eyes : " No, I can't do it for the half-pound a month, but I can 
do it for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ." We believe it is the same spirit which is 
animating many of the Jaffna College graduates. 

About five years ago there carpe a request from the missionary at Indore, Scindia, 



Mr. Ckanmukam. 



133 



India, for a graduate of the College to come as a teacher of English in the Mission 
High School there. Mr. Chanmukam, a graduate who had been converted during his 
College course^ consented to go. In the meantime there came a second letter from the 
missionary, saying that as they were in the territory of a native prince who was 
unfavourable to the introduction of Christianity, they met with much opposition in 
their mission work ; that they were not allowed to buy or rent a house in the city, but 
had to live and teach in buildings outside of the city ; that when they held preaching 
services, the native police often broke up the meetings, dispersing the people, and 
even taking the native helpers to prison. Mr. Chanmukam was called, and the letter 
was read to him. While he listened, tears began slowly to gather in his eyes. At its 
close he looked up with a radiant and determined face and said : " If that missionary 
can leave his home and come all the way to India and endure all that for the sake of 
Christ, I think I ought to go and help him." And he went with a true missionary 
spirit to a country 1600 miles distant from Jaffna, among a people who speak another 
language, and where the climate, food, dress, religion, all are different. 

The missionary wrote as follows of him and of another Jaffna College graduate who 
has more recently gone to the same place : — 

Indore, Central India, October I, 1886. 
In reply to your letter, I most gladly bear testimony 
in regard to Mr. Chanmukam and Mr. Charles, two 
Jaffna graduates at Indore, the former of whom I 
have had ample opportunity of testing, as he has been 
with me now for about two years. 

Mr. Chanmukam is very well up in English, 
Mathematics, History, Geography, Grammar, &c., as 
is seen from the fact that he so easily at the last 
Entrance Examination of the Calcutta University 
stood first in English and Mathematics, and fourth in 
all the subjects. His knowledge of the first two is 
superior to that of many of the B.A.'s that we have 
about us here. As a teacher, he has been most 
successful both in winning the confidence of the boys 
and in imparting knowledge, and is to-day the favourite 
teacher in the school, as well as the best. So much 
confidence have I in him, that as soon as his place 
here can be filled, I intend to send him to Ujjain to 
start and take charge of a new High-School which I 



PORTRAIT OF MR. CHANMUKAM. 




134 Testiin on ials. 

hope soon to start there. What especially has pleased me has Leen his modest, 
earnes*- consistent Christian life — an example that alone has done much to help us 
here. His duties do not allow him much time for direct Christian work, yet where 
he gets opportunity he does not fail to use it. My earnest wish is for more such 
men, and my warmest thanks are due to the Institution which trained him, to you for 
sending him, and to the Grace of God above all, which has in him so manifestly 
shown to the heathen its power. 

Though of Mr. Charles I cannot speak so fully, as he has been a shorter time with 
us, yet we all like very much his earnest^ faithful efforts, which as time goes on will be 
more appreciated I doubt not. 

With thanks for your kind interest in our work, I remain, yours sincerely. 

J. WiLKlK, Canadian Mission. 

More than five years ago a call came from a missionary at Ahraednagar, in the 
Deccan, India, for a teacher in the mission college there. Mr. Lee, a graduate of 
the Jaffna College, a native Christian of the third generation, accepted the call. The 
missionary wrote of him : — 

Alimednagar, Deccan, India, yune 2S, 18S6. 
Two years ago you sent a young man to help us here— Mr. G. C. Lee. We are 
more than satisfied with him as a scholar, teacher and above all as a Christian. 1 
congratulate you on turning out such a man. He is more than I hoped for, and has 
become by far the best man I have or have had. Had I some more like him, with a 
good knowledge of Marathi, I could have the best school in India. As it is, his work 
could not be better done by any one, and besides, he is always at my elbow to do 
anything and everything. 

With best wishes, yours very truly, 

James Smith, American Missionary., 

Principal, Ahmednagar College. 

After this young man had been in Ahmednagar for some time on a salary of ^4 a 
month, he received an offer of ^10 a month if he would go elsewhere, but he said, 
•' No ; I think I can do more good here," and he stayed. He teaches large classes of 
high-caste Hindu young men, and he has so won their friendship and esteem that 
students of his classes often go to his room in the evening for conversation on religious 
subjects, and for Bible-reading and prayer. His brother, also a graduate of the Jaffna 
College, is likewise now employed in the same Institution. 

Numbers of Jaffna young men are employed in similar capacities and with much 




MR. G. C. LEE (in THE CENTRE) AND A FEW OF HIS STUDENTS. 



acceptance in Bombay, Madras, Ujjain, Coimbatoon, Roha, Madura Passumallui, 
and other parts of India, as well as in Rangoon and Singapore. God has given to many 
of the graduates a misswiary spirit, and a willingness to leave home and go to all parts 
of India on small salaries, to engage in the work of teaclmig in mission schools. In this 
fact seems to lie an indication of Providence as to the work before the College in the 
future, to which we should take heed, atid in which we should rejoice. 

It is now proposed to make the Jaffna College a First- Grade College ; to extend its 
course of study ; to add to its staff of foreign and native professors ; enlarging and 
improvitig its building accommodation, reducing tlie ge?zeral expenses, and providing 
permanent scholarships in aid of necessitous students. At the present time the Jaffna 
College enables its students to pass the Cambridge Junior and Senior Local Exaraina- 



136 Government Education in India. 

tions, and gives a select course of study beyond that. But if larger and larger 
numbers of the graduates of the Jaffna College are to find places as teachers in 
Mission Schools in India, this College must be affiliated with a University, for the 
Educational Department of the Madras Presidency has lately passed a resolution that 
only those who have matriculated or who hold degrees will be eligible to receive 
salary grants from Government. As it is by these grants that Indian Mission Colleges 
are largely supported, Indian missionaries will be unable to employ Jaffna graduates 
hereafter, to any large extent, unless they comply with this Government requirement. 
The Mission Colleges in India are doing a great work in giving a Christian education 
to the youths of India, and stemming the tide of infidelity which is coming in 
like a flood, owing to the fact that only a secular education is given in Government 
Colleges. 

Major-General F. T. Haig, R.E., writes as follows respecting Government education 
in India : — 

'■' There is a great thirst for education throughout India. Education is spreading 
like wildfire. Hindoos are already beginning to tax themselves for education, and 
that will be the most popular tax in the country. But observe what is being done. 
The Government are in earnest in this matter. They are going in for the education 
of these 250 millions. But it will be a. godless education. There is not even the 
Bible in the Indian school ; it is utterly put aside, and the education given is 
absolutely secular. What is to be the result ? What zvill he the vast social and 
political movement that will take place amom; 250 millions of people, whose faith in their 
07vn ancestral religion has been destroyed by their education, atid to whom we have given 
nothing else? A statesman, however worldly, might be appalled at the prospect of 
having to deal with such a people, and yet that is what we have got before us, unless 
the Christian Church will do its duty, and impart to the people that religious 
instruction which cannot be given in the Government schools. 

" We have in India 250 millions of people, 200 millions of whom are our fellow- 
subjects ; for they are really and truly subjects of the Queen. The remaining 50 
millions are the subjects of the feudatory States, in each of which we have a resident 
without whose permission nothing can be done. For all these millions, who are 
practically our fellow-subjects, we are doubly responsible before God. We have 
subdued the country in the most perfect manner, and we are responsible before God 
for the welfare of its people. We cannot put this thought aside. We may ignore the 
remainder of the heathen world if we will, but these 250 millions of India we cannot 
set aside. We must feel that we are responsible before God for them and for their 
salvation. What is the spiritual provision that we as a Christian people are now 



One Minister to 450,000 People ! 137 

making for the people of India ? Let us just for one moment remember the provision 
that we malce for our own spiritual needs at home : — 

" In England we have 20,000 clergymen of the Church of England and at least as 
many more ministers of the different Nonconformist denominations. Then for each 
one of these clergymen and ministers you must allow several additional classes of 
Christian workers, like city missionaries, Sunday-school teachers, visitors, Bible-women, 
and every conceivable form of paid and unpaid Christian labourers. Taking simply 
the clergymen and ministers who are specially ordained for this work, we have at 
least 40,000 in this little island ministering to the religious wants of 26 millions of 
people, or one to every 650 people. 

" Now, let us look to British India. What have we got there ? Six hundred and 
forty ministers, or one to every 450,000 people. Please note these facts. The facts 
with regard to the heathen world at large are very few and simple, but of enormous 
power. We send to India, where we have been these two hundred years, only 640 
ministers ! Is there not something monstrously wrong there ? " 

AVe would like to insert also an extract from a non-Christian Hindu paper, the 
Indu Prakash of Bombay : — 

" Education provided by the State simply destroys Hinduism ; it gives nothing in 
its place. It is (bunded on the benevolent principle of non-interference with religion, 
but in practice it is the negation of God in life. Education must destroy idolatry, and 
the State education of India, benevolent in its idea, practically teaches atheism. It 
leaves its victims faithless. Our young men are, many of them, forced by it into the 
unhappy position of the sceptics and infidels of Europe. As soon as this is generally 
perceived and felt, the cry will go up to England, ' Father, Father, give us faith ! ' 
Knowledge alone does not suffice men, nor material prosperity, nor good government ; 
the things of this life are fleeting, the life to come is eternal ; and men and nations 
can only be happy in recognizing and acting righteously on this Divine fact. Without 
faith, life is without an aim, death without hope, and there can be neither individual 
happiness nor national greatness. If England will not hear our cry, and indeed 
anticipate it, then will the shriek go up to our Father in heaven, ' Father, Father, givf 
us faith.' " 

Is not this appeal most touching, considering the source from whence it comes ? 
Will not Christians respond to it, and ^o tnore to support the Christian Colleges of 
India and Ceylon, and Christian work in every department ? 

A missionary in Lucknow, India, writes : — 

" We in India are in the midst of a great educational movement. The intellect of 
these people is awaking from the sleep of twenty centuries, and everywhere the youth 




may be seen thronging toward the school- 
room. We have boldly entered the 
country and challenged Buddhism, Ma- 
hommedanism, and Hinduism to combat, 
and now we have no alternative short of 



TRICHINOPOLY ROCK AND TEMPLE. 



Christian Teachers Wanted. 135 

retreat left us save that of manfully trying to meet the momentous responsibilities 
which the intellectual awakening has imposed upon us. We cannot confine our work 
to preaching alone. As well try to persuade the churches at home to abolish their 
colleges and seminaries. We have no choice. To shirk our responsibility would 
be to postpone the final triumph of Christianity for generations to come^, and consign 
the intellect of the country to a depraved infidelity compounded of the superstition 
of the Hindu, the bigotry of the Mahommedan, the lethargy of the Buddhist, and the 
Sadducean heartlessness of the European rationalist. Christianity must at once assume 
her full responsibility in trying to guide this educational movement, so as to make it a 
blessing instead of a curse to India." 

The missionaries in India are thus striving in a devoted spirit, and with a lar^e 
measure of success, to impart a sound religious and secular education to the vast 
number of youths who throng into their institutions. But it is widely felt that the 
Indimt Mission Colles;es labour as yet tinder one great difficidty, viz. the lack of a 
sufficient number of able Christian teachers of good caste. 

While^ recently in India we visited the following colleges : — Wesleyan College^ 
Negapatam ; S. P. G. College, Tanjore : S. P. G. College, Trichinopoly ; Free Church 
College, Madras ; Free Church College^ Bombay ; Free Church College, Poona ; 
London Mission College, Calcutta ; American Methodist Mission College, Luck- 
now. We found in these great institutions, in the preparatory and collegiate depart- 
mentSj altogether 5030 students ; of these^ 374 were Christians. We found 163 
native teachers, fifty-one of whom were Christians and 112 of whom were non- 
Christians. These facts speak for themselves as to the need of additional Christian 
teachers for the mission colleges of India. The Hindu and Mahommedan teachers, as 
a rule, outnumber the native Christian teachers. It is not unusual to find, in Indian 
Mission Colleges and High Schools, Brahmin teachers, with heathen marks on their 
foreheads, sitting before their students in the class rooms teaching B.A and F.A. 
subjects, while the native Christian teachers take lower subjects, and sometimes a 
Pariah or Shanar native pastor teaches the Bible lesson. This, as can be easily seen, 
tends to make an unfavourable impression on the minds of the students in regard to 
the value and importance of Christianity. It may be partly as a result of this that many 
Indian Mission Colleges have to report so comparatively small a number of conversions 
among their students. Mission Colleges will never be such powerful evangelizing 
agencies as they ought to be until this state of things is rectified. The missionaries 
the)?iselves deplore it, and ^vould most gladly fill the places of these heathen teachers 
with Christian men of influence and thorough education, if enough of such could be 
obtained. The Principal of the Lucknow American Mission College writes in a 



I40 Jaffna, a Key to India. 

recent annual report, speaking of that large mission : " The demand in all parts of 
the field is rapidly increasing : we could employ two hundred Christian teachers at 
once were they available ; as it is we are obliged to employ Hindu and Mahommedan 
teachers." 

It is to be borne in mind that the Christian community in India is comparatively 
small as yet (one in looo of the population), and is composed mostly of converts from 
the low caste or outcast classes, and not from those who are Hindus proper. The low 
castes, having been ground down by poverty and oppression for centuries, are mentally 
inferior to the high castes, and many would not be intellectually able to take a full 
B.A. course in English. Besides, the low caste as a rule are poor, and therefore most 
of them have not the means to give their sons an extended education. 

Now, turning and viewing the facts in Jaffna, we find an almost opposite state of 
things. The English and American missions, by God's providence and blessing, have 
been able largely to evangelize the upper castes. There are in the churches of the 
three missions in Jaffna over 2500 communicants, or nearly one in 100 of the popula- 
tion, mostly of high caste, and there are in the Christian day-schools of these missions 
15,000 children, also mostly of high caste. Educated Jaffna Christians are, as a rule, 
able and reliable men. A former Governor of Madras, Sir Charles Trevelyan, 
Slid that he found no young men so useful to him in administration of affairs as those 
trained in the College (Seminary) at Jaffna. We believe that this is Jaffna's great 
opportunity to help India, and that with God's blessing Jaffna may prove to be a key 
to India in reaching its upper castes. India is very accessible from Ceylon, and native 
boats can cross to India in a night. 

Were the Jaffna College well equipped and affiliated with a University, Christian 
graduates could be sent as helpers to many missions in India. Who can tell how great 
a service this would be rendering to missions, and to the cause of Christ in India ? 
Just as formerly missionaries from the little island of lona went over Scotland, and 
Scotland is now a Christian land, so from the island of Ceylon shall go, we trust, 
in the future, many native Christian workers to India, and, by God's blessing, help to 
make that great land one day a Christian land. With 15,000 children, mostly of high 
caste, in the Christian day-schools of the missions, a large proportion of whom are 
bright, promising lads, eager for an education and able and willing to pay for it in 
whole or in part, should not the College endeavour to train as many as possible for 
Christian work in Ceylon and India? 

Almost the whole education of the peninsula is in the hands of the missionaries, and 
the parents, as a rule, do not object to their children learning the Bible lessons and 
Christian songs, nor to their attending the Sabbath-school. Young men and women 



Persecution of Christians Declining. 141 

from heathen families of good caste, on becoming Christians and joining the Churchy 
seldom meet now with any great persecution from their relatives, but are generally- 
allowed to live as Christians in their homes, eating with the other members of the family. 
Child marriage is not practised as in India, and widow re-marriage is becoming more 
common. The Zenana system of India does not prevail^ though girls and young 
women of good families are kept in some seclusion. Caste prejudices are not so 
strong as in India. The people are not so priest-ridden, and many are losing faith in 
idoLtry. Almost every house is open to visits of the missionaries and native helpers, 
and Christianity, instead of being bitterly opposed and looked down upon, is generally 
respected in the community. These and other advantageous circumstances fit Jaffna 
to be a nursery for Christian workers. In this favourable atmosphere they may develop 
strong, vigorous, well-balanced Christian characters. 

Missionaries alone cannot accomplish the vast work of reaching and evangeHzing 
the 250 millions of India. The missionary force on the ground is small (one ordained 
missionary to 450,000 people). It is by natives that the bulk of the work must be 
done. Hence the urgent necessity to train and send forth a large and well-qualified 
staff of native agents. A native can get nearer to the people than a foreigner, can 
understand better their difficulties, feels more free with the language, and is not 
affected by the tropical sun as a foreigner is apt to be. Viewing the matter also from 
a financial standpoint, we find that the cost of educating and maintaining native 
workers is trifling compared with the cost of educating, sending out, and maintaining 
foreigners. 

The cost of educating a studait in the faffna College, including food, clothing, 
books, incidentals, and tuition, does not exceed £^\o a year. It need scarcely be 
said that care is taken not to allow the students to learn extravagant habits. They 
wear the native dress, eat the native food of the country, and live in the simplest 
native style Hence the graduates are willing to become pastors, catechists, and 
evangelists on small salaries, supplied entirely by native churches. Of the twenty-two 
native churches in Jaffna, the majority are selfsupporting. 

In a recent conversation with a missionary from India, who had been for many 
years connected with a missionary college in one of the Presidency towns, he said, 
" Our great difficulty is that, though we have native Christian young men graduating 
from our college every year, we cannot secure them, as a rule, for mission helpers. 
The reason is that the Government offers twice or thrice as much salary as our mission 
is able to give, and the temptation proves too much for them, so they enter Govern- 
ment service." 

But the glory of the Jaffna College is that many of its graduates do not want to 



w 



"^!SSPR"'-'y!*S'W"^" 







1 .' 







*fe. 



■^it 



MR. EDWIN R. FITCH (a GRADUATE OF THE JAFFNA COLLEGE), HEAD MASTER IN THE ENGLISH 

MIDDLE SCHOOL OF THE CANADIAN MISSION IN UJJAIN, AND SOME OF HIS 

ASSISTANTS AND PUPILS. 



engage in Government service, but seek mission work, even though the pay may be 
only one-half or one-third of what they could get in secular employments. They have 
found something better worth living for than making money. It has been said, " There 
has never been such giving toward religious objects as has been shown by Hindus in 
their worship, and if they have done this for false gods, what may we not expect of 
them when they know the true God?" May we not hope that the native Christians 
may more and more in the future possess the Spirit of Him who said, " I have 
meat to eat that ye know not of," and " My meat is to' do the will of Him that sent 
Me." 

It was most touching to note in the Church Missionary Intelligencer for September, 
1887, that two young men, natives of Syria, graduating from the American Mission 
College at Beirut, on hearing of the martyrdoms taking place in Uganda, offered 
themselves to the Church Missionary Society for mission work in Africa. They knew 
the difficulties and dangers of the work, the climate, the degradation of the people, but 



Educated Helpers Needed. 143 

they said, " We have taken all this into account, and we wish to go to Africa and to 
live and die if need be for that people." They made no stipulations as to salary or 
kind of work. They were mindful of their Master's last words, " Ye shall be witnesses 
of Me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth." Obedience is simply a question of 
supreme love to Christ. 

When Garibaldi had been defeated at Rome, he issued his immortal appeal : 
" Soldiers, I have nothing to offer you but cold, and hunger, and rags, and hardships ; 
let him who loves his country follow me : " and thousands of youths of Italy sprang to 
their feet. If the young men and young women in Christian lands love their own 
ease and comfort too much to follow Jesus to the mission-field, surely the time 
is coming when the very stones will cry out, and from among the converted heathen 
those shall arise who will improve the great opportunity, which others have despised, 
of evangelizing the whole world. 

Jaffna College graduates could readily engage in evangelistic work not only in 
Ceylon but all over South India, as the Tamil la?igiiage, which is the vernacular in 
Jaffna, is the language of sixteen millions of people in Southern India. 

" In towns and villages much work can be done by those whose scholastic attain- 
ments are not high — earnest, humble workers, labouring among their own relatives. 
But besides these, we must have for the larger places well-educated helpers, able to 
answer the numerous and often difficult objections which their opponents bring forward. 
But, apart from the growing demand for first-class preachers, the country urgently 
requires a class of educated native Christians, capable in different spheres of 
usefulness of influencing other educated natives all around them. And it must not be 
forgotten that our plans, having for their object the perfect independence of the native 
churches, are sure to prove abortive if native Christians are not prepared by superior 
education for the responsible and remunerative posts which have hitherto been 
monopolized by Hindus, Mussulmans, Buddhists, and Eurasians." 

There are in Jaffna over 2500 native Christian communicants. "A well-equipped 
college would be the greatest boon to this raipdly-increasing native Christian com- 
munity, insuring to the sons of native converts educational facilities which otherwise 
they could not enjoy, and thus giving them a preparation which would fit them for 
lives of the highest Christian usefulness. We want not only a warm-hearted but a 
strong, intelligent, clear-headed native Church. We would not be content to have 
our converts and their children remain on the same low level of intelligence where the 
Gospel found them. We wish for them growth, advancement, success ; and one of 
the wisest methods of insuring these is to build up this college, the uplifting influence 
of which will be felt for generations to come." 



144 



REQUIREMENTS. 

Endowment for the Salary of Principal 

Endowment for the Salary of one Married Foreign 

Professor 
Endowment for One-Third Salary of Married Foreign 

Medical Professor 
Endowment for the Salary of Native Medical Professor... 
Endowment for the Salaries of three Native Professors... 
Permanent Scholarships of ^j^^ioo each for 60 Students 
(Ten of these Permanent Scholarships are for 
Medical Students.) 
General Endowment 

House and Furniture for Married Foreign Professor;^6oo 
Building Sites and Houses for Three Native 

Professors ••■ •■■ •■• 3°° 

Improvement of College — Dining Hall 100 

Laboratory and Physical Science Hall with 

additional Apparatus 
New Dormitories ... 

Library Building and Library 

General Improvements on existing Buildings 



Fund. 



£5, 



300 

200 
200 
200 



5,000 



4,500 



Yearly 
Income. 
£250 

250 



2,000 


100 


1,100 


55 


4,500 


22s 


6,000 


300 



225 



1,900 



Total sum required ...;^3o.ooo 

The foregoing Estimates of Requirements received the sanction of the Board of 
Directors of the Jaffna College 

NAMES OF DIRECTORS. 
Foreig7i Residents. 
W. C. TwYNAM, Esq., C.M.G. Government Agent, Northern Province. 
Rev. E. P. Hastings, D.D , M.A., American Missionary, Principal Jaffna College. 
Rev. W. W. HowLAND, M.A., American Missionary. 
Rev. R. C. Hastings, M.A., American Missionary. 
Rev. E. M. Griffith, M.A., Church Missionary. 
Rev. W. R. Winston. Wesleyan Missionary, Chairman Northern Ceyloni District. 



Teachers and Salaries. 145 

Native Residents. 
C. W. Cathiravalu PiLLAi, Esq., Magistrate. 
R. Breckenbridge, Esq., Sub-Inspector of Schools. 
Rev. E. Champion, Native Pastor, Church Mission. 
Rev. B. H. Rice, Native Pastor, American Mission. 
J. R. Arnold, Esq., Joint Editor, Morning Star. 
Rev. T. P. Hunt, Native Pastor American Mission. 
T. C. Changara Pillai, Esq., Proctor, Supreme Court. 
T. M. Tambu, Esq., Proctor, Supreme Court. 
L. S. Strong, Esq., Medical Practitioner. 
Wm. Paul, Esq., Dispenser, Friend-in-Need Hospital. 
J. P. Cooke, Esq., Head Master, Batticotta High School. 

We hope that friends of education and of Christianity will aid this enterprise. 
;^3o,ooo may seem to be a large sum, but is it large considering what is proposed to 
be accomplished by it, viz. the extending and permanently endowing of a Christian 
College, and a General Medical Mission? A lady in Glasgow gave recently _j^i 2,500 to 
endow one additional chair in the Glasgow University, where already they have 50 
professors and teachers. 

It is proposed to have 180 students in the College. Of these, 120 will be required 
to pay the whole cost of their education, viz. ^10 a year, and the remaining 60, or 
one-third of the whole number, we wish to be able to aid by scholarships to the extent 
of one-half of their expenses, or ^5 a year. 

There are in our Missions pastors and catechists of good ability receiving only ^2 
or ;^3 per month, who might have been receiving, had they sought Government 
employment, ;£?, or ;^io a month, and yet, from love to Christ and to His cause, 
they have chosen Christian work. Scholarships could sometimes be used in aiding 
the sons of these Christian workers, for they must find it very difificult to pay the 
whole sum required to give their sons a college education ; and we have reason to 
hope that such boys, if taken into the College, would become useful Christian workers 
in their turn, having been from earliest childhood brought up in the atmosphere of a 
Christian home. 

Over 50 Bible-women are employed under the three missions in Jaffna. They 
receive from ^s. to \6s. a month as salary. A considerable number of these are 
widows who support themselves and their little ones on this small sum. To aid sons 
of these Bible-women by scholarships would be a truly Christian deed. When a 
native Christian mother, a widow, has dedicated her most precious treasure, her eldest 



146 "Aye be Stickiit' in a Tree, Jamie." 

son, to mission work, surely it should be a joy for fathers and mothers in a Christian 
country to help such a one pecuniarily in the education of that son, and so share in 
the blessing which is sure to follow. 

^100 will found a permanent scholarship. It might bear the name of the founder, 
or, if given by a congregation, Sunday-school, or Bible-class, the name of the pastor, 
school superintendent, or teacher. When not convenient to pay the whole sum at 
once, it might be paid in instalments of ;^2o a year for five years. Many who cannot 
themselves afford such sums, yet out of love for the cause might be able to interest a 
circle of ten friends who would each undertake to give ^2 a year for five years ; thus 
a whole scholarship would be secured. An annual subscription of ^5 would be equal 
to a temporary scholarship. Students will write yearly letters to their patrons^ giving 
accounts of their studies and progress. 

Only Christian young men will be aided by scholarships or annual subscriptions. 
Each young man so aided will sign an njidertaking that lie will engage in tnissiofi work 
under some Mission in Ceylon or India for a period of years after his graduation ; or 
that, if he is in any way prevented from doing this, he will refiuid to the College all tlie 
money which he has received from the scholarship. Thus the scholarships will aid in 
training up native Christians pledged to mission luork. 

A Scotch laird once said to his son, " Aye be stickin' in a tree, Jamie ; it'll be 
growin' when ye're sleepin'." We think that to be endowing a scholarship in a 
Christian college in a heathen land is to be sticking in a tree which will be growing 
while we are sleeping in the dust, or rather when we have left this earth and are 
rejoicing in the presence of our Saviour. 

A missionary of long experience in India, when at home on furlough, wrote as 
follows : — 

" The people in heathen lands can worship in private houses, or under trees, or in 
the open street with little aid from outside, but they imperatively need help in the 
matter of Christian education. Without it the churches cannot flourish, their children 
will grow up in ignorance ; there is no assurance that the Christian life which has been 
begun in them will retain its hold upon the next generation. The honest, earnest cry 
for a training which shall produce a native evangelical agency, both as preachers and 
teachers, is coming up from all quarters. In some cases it is a piercing cry ! It is a 
call not for a luxury but for a necessity. It ought to be heard and heeded. Mission- 
aries who are temporarily at home open the papers and find every week or two, perhaps 
oftener, the record of a gift often or twenty thousand pounds sterling to this or that 
college or other institution of learning. Perhaps it may be for a professorship, in addi- 
tion to the twenty, or thirty, or forty others now secured. Perhaps it may be for an art 



IV/iy We Undertook this Work. 147 

gallery or a gymnasium, or some other desirable thing in connection with the institu- 
tion. They are not narrow-minded men and women who do not appreciate the im- 
portance of having everything that may tend to the development of the generations to 
come. But they cannot help saying within themselves^ "That gift of ^20,000- it 
will add something to the value of a prosperous collegCj but it would found for all 
time a whole institution in our field. It would at once open the way for a Christian 
education to scores and scores of young men^ who^ without it^ will have no opportunity 
to fit themselves as preachers or teachers. If missionaries do not ask that some of 
the luxuries which are provided for institutions of learning in this country be curtailed 
a little, is it not right that they should ask for some of the crumbs that fall from the 
table, so that the people for whom they labour may not be left to starve ? " 

We have been sometimes asked how we were led first of all to undertake the work 
of securing the needed funds for this institution. In North Ceylon there were ten 
missionary families among a population of 316,000 people. Each family had charge 
of a district. We were the only missionaries in a district of 20,000 people. There 
were in our district twenty-six day-schools, with about 2000 children in them. Of 
these, several were English schools. Two of these, with a total attendance of about 
200 students, were situated near the mission house, and the majority of the students 
attended our station Sabbath- school. The upper classes from both schools also came 
to our house daily for a Bible lesson in English, and for help in their secular studies. 
Having them thus with us daily, both during the week and in our Sunday-school 
classes, we became deeply interested in them, and regarded them as younger brothers. 
Most of them came from heathen homes, and wore the marks of the god Siva on their 
foreheads, yet we noticed, as we went on teaching them the truth, that without our 
asking them to do so, one after another began of their own accord to leave off the 
heathen marks. Many of them began to attend the church services, several joined 
the inquirers' class, and some from time to tiaie professed faith in Christ, and were 
received into the Church. We knew that many more were, in their hearts, really 
convinced of the truth of the Gospel, and were just at the turning-point of their lives. 

Many of these boys, on leaving the English day-schools, were desirous of a higher 
education. What would they do? Some would go to the Jaffna College and ask to 
be received, but the college has at present limited accommodation, and perhaps they 
could not pay the required fees. Perhaps of twenty boys leaving the English day- 
schools in our district each year, two or three would be received into the college. 
What would the others do ? They were determined to have a higher education. 
They would go to India, to study in heathen or non-Christian schools, where they 
could live in the houses of their heathen relations, and be aided in their expenses by 




IMAGE OF ONK OF THE FIVE " PANDIANS" IN TREVANDRUM FORT. 




Back to Heathenism 149 

heathen relatives. We have known 
fourteen of our dear boys^ whom 
we had taught for years, and had 
learned to love, go over to India in 
one night, most of them to study in 
that sink of iniquity and moral 
leprosy — Kompa-kornum. 

We knew that these boys would 
board in heathen families, ' would 
be compelled the first night, before 
they ate their food, to put on the 
heathen ashes, and to wear them 
always; that they would not be 
allowed to attend any Christian 
services, but would be obliged to 
go to temples, perform heathen 
ceremonies, study the heathen 
books ; that they would hear Christ 
constantly reviled, and the Christian 
religion mocked and scorned^ and 
that being under these influences 
for a period of years, they would 
come back to us bitter heathens, or 
agnostics, or infidels, to be our 
worst opposevs, and morally unfit to 
become the husbands of the pure 
young girls who were being trained 
in mission day and boarding schools, 
to whom in many instances they 
were engaged. 

When we were in India in 1 882, 

and again in 1885, we took occasion 

to visit the cities of Negapatam, 

Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, 

THE CRUEL GODDESS KALI. and Madras, and to see the Jaffna 

young men who were studying in the heathen or Government schools in those cities. It pained our 

hearts to find them living among heathen surroundings, and to see how worldly and irreligious they 



A GROUP OF CHRISTIAN SINGERS. 



150 



Ponniah. 




(PONNIAH WITH THE VIOLIN.J 



had grown, and how far they hail 
retrograded since they had left 
us in Jaffna. We knew that had 
these young men been studying 
instead in the Jaffna College, 
under the strong Christian in- 
fluence there, they would in all 
probability, with God's blessing, 
have given their hearts to Christ, 
and been preparing for lives of 
Christian usefulness in Ceylon or 
in India. 

As we went on teaching large 
classes of boys from year to year, 
on week-days and Sabbaths, 
loving them, labouring and pray- 
ing for their conversion, seeing 

them almost persuaded to be Christians, and then at the critical moment finding 
large numbers of the brightest and most promising leave us year by year for these 
heathen schools in India, it seemed as though we could not bear it. We made a 
census of the peninsula of Jaffna, and found that about 200 Jaffna young men were 
then studying in schools outside of Jaffna. When we pictured to ourselves the 
almost overpoweringly evil influences with which we had seen them surrounded 
in India, and the effect these must have on their characters ; and when we reflected 
that were the Jafi"na College enlarged and its course of instruction extended, many 
of these students might have been kept in Jaffna instead of being allowed to go 
to India away from parental restraint and from all Christian influence; and as we 
heard at the Union Missionar)' Prayer Meetings the missionaries' of all the three 
societies in Jaffna again and again deplore the existing state of things ; we felt 
that something ought to be done, that it was not enough merely to deplore the evil 
thing, that we ought to try to remedy it. The thought also of the good these young 
men of high caste might do, if brought to Christ, in replacing heathen teachers in 
mission schools in India, was constantly present to our minds. 

A circumstance which took place at that time helped to lead us to a decision. 
We were told, one afternoon, that a boy named Ponniah was going to be sent by 
his parents to India the next day. We were specially attached to this bright young 
Christian boy, the son of Christian parents. He was always ready to do Christian 



■ Ponniah must be Educated'. 



151 



work ; he was a sweet singer, and had constantly assisted us by singing at our open air 
and village meetings. We went at once to the house. We spoke as earnestly as we 
could with the parents, begging them not to send their son to India. They said, 
" What can we do ? We have, as you know, a large family of httle children, and 
Ponniah must be educated, that he may be able to help his younger brothers and 
sisters. We are unable to educate him in Jaffna College. We have asked the 




A PROFESSOR AND STUDENTS IN THE JAFFNA COLLEGE. 



Principal of the College and all the missionaries to help us, but they say they are already 
aiding as many as they possibly can. A heathen relative has offered to educate him in 
India. We do not believe he will become a heathen, even though he studies in a 
heathen school. We see no other way; we must send him to India." We pleaded 
with them till far into the night. AVe told them that a man cannot take fire into 
his bosom and not be burned, and that we had seen the state of things in these 



152 More than half Subscribed. 

heathen schools in India, and felt sure that this boy could not spend four or five years 
of the most formative period of his life there without being contaminated. However, 
we could not shake their resolution to send the boy to India. 

In imagination we saw the long procession in years to come of just such bright, 
promising boys going to India and returning lost to purity and to the cause of Christ. 
We could not bear the thought. We went home that night, got down on our knees and 
asked God to help us to raise the funds needed to e.\tend the work of the College. Froin 
that hour to this our courage has tiever faltered— not for a moment. We believe Christ 
laid the burden of this work on our hearts, and we took it up in the strength of Him 
who is the great burden-bearer. 

The Board of Directors of the Jaffna College sanctioned our effort. The American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Boston, whose missionaries we are, 
kindly granted us permission to come home on furlough, and they have since extended 
our furlough that we might go on with this work till its completion. We arrived in 
England on January ist, 1887. The same year, a committee to aid us in this work was 
formed in Edinburgh. God has opened many homes and hearts in response, we 
believe, to the prayers of many in Jaffna who daily remember us and this cause before 
the throne of grace. We have secured up to May, 1890, _;^i 7,000, given or 
promised for the Jaffna College and General Medical Mission. This leaves ;!{^i3,ooo 
yet to be secured to complete the ^30,000 aimed at. However long or however 
short a time it may take to secure this amount, we intend to continue our efforts, so 
long as we believe it to be God's will, and so long as He gives us health and a 
wide open door, until the whole sum is secured. 

We would consider several years of work well spent if only we might see the Jaffna 
College permanently equipped with additional foreign and native professorships, with 
a larger staff of earnest Christian professors and teachers, with scholarships-for needy 
Christian students, with some additional buildings and appliances, and thus enabled 
better to meet the needs of the people of Jaffna; also a fully-equipped General 
Medical Mission established in connection with it, and under the direction of the same 
undenominational and unsectarian Board of Directors, to be a blessing to the whole 
peninsula. We also desire to see, in due time, the establishment of a Medical Mission 
for Women. 

We have often been asked if we did not feel anxious as to the success of our scheme. 
Did we think we should realize our ambition ? During the six winters in which we 
worked among the negroes of the Southern States, before going to Ceylon, and during 
the seven years we were in Ceylon, if we had one ambition, one aim in life, it was to do 
good. But two years ago, when one of us was ill for two months, and it looked as if 



The Tables Turned. IS3 

perhaps this work, so dear to us, must be given up, we changed our aim in life, and 
now ? Now our ambition is to do tlie will of God, whatever that may be. We know 
His will is perfect. We know it is the one utterly good thing in all the world, 
and that the highest and the only success for us in life consists in doing the will of God 
day by day. 

With regard to the urgent claims of the foreign field, we would like just here to 
quote a few words from an address of Mr. R. P. Wilder, delivered at a recent meeting 
in Philadelphia : — 

I want to give to you a thought which was suggested to me a few months ago, as I was walking up 
one of the streets of New York City. The thought was this, I put myself into the places of those 
people in India ; I remembered the story of the Brahman who came to one of our missionaries and 
said, " Sahib, 1 have been up North and bathed in the Kanga Nadi to wash away my sins. I have 
been to shrines in the East and shrines in the West. Once I was young, and now I am old. My 
hair and beard have grown gray, but I have not found peace. Can you help me? " As I was thinking 
of that man, my mind went back to the time when Barnabas and Paul crossed the bridge spanning the 
Orontes. But they go East instead of going West. India is evangelized instead of Greece, China 
instead of Rome, and Asia instead of Europe, so that the Anglo-Saxon race is left in heathen darkness. 
It seemed to me that my own father journejed from one shrine to another trying to find peace. At 
last he goes to the northern part of the British Isles ; and there he sits, under a towering oak, with a 
Druid priest, trying to find peace. And when he is dying he calls me to his side and says: " Son, 
once I was young, and now I am old. My hair and my beard have grown gray, but I have not yet 
found peace. Can you help nie } " And I answer, " No, father, I cannot," and he dies. Then I 
study medicine and astrology, trying to find peace. But one day, in the course of my studies, I meet 
a man who has seen a missionaiy. " Oh," he says, " that missionary used wonderful words. He said 
that 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever beheveth on Him 
might not perish.'" I stopped him. "Sir," said I, " where can I find that missionary?" He tells 
me. I start off, and after two weeks' walking, I meet him in a little village in Spain. Again [ hear 
those wonderful words that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." '' Sir," said I, " how long is it 
since Christ died?" "Eighteen hundred years." "Your father knew about Christ?" "Yes." 
" Your grandfather knew about Christ ? " " Yes." " Why did not your father come to tell my father? 
My father spent from childhood to old age seeking peace, and died without it. Sir,'' said I, "are 
there many people in your country who know about Christ?" "Yes, we have an average of one 
minister to every 800 of our population, we have an average of one Christian worker to every forty- 
eight, and we have an average of one church communicant to every five of our population." " Well, 
sir," said I, "why don't they come over and tell us Anglo-Saxons about Christ?" He could not 
answer, and in the still watches of the night, it seemed to me I could hear a voice from on high saying, 
" If thou forbear to deliver those that are drawn to death, and those that are ready to be slain, if thou 
sayest, Behold we knew it not, doth not He that fondereth the heart coiisider it ? And He that keepeth 
thy sold, doth He not know it ? And shall not He render to every man according to his works i " 

Some of the native Christians in Ceylon have made great sacrifices, and endured 
much persecution and ridicule from their friends and relatives in confessing Christ, and 
so have proved themselves worthy of the aid which it may cost Christians in this 



154 



'No Sacrifice." 



happy and favoured land some little sacrifice to give. The Master says, " Whosoever 
shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and before the 
angels." Is it enough lo confess Christ before a small circle of loving friends in one's 
church at home ? Surely it is not for such a small and easy thing that so great a 
reward is promised. In the early days, confessing Christ meant loss, suffering, 
martyrdom, if need be Christ asks nothing less of us because He asks everything of 
us. " Whosoeiier he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My 
disciple." The test of discipleship is the same now as then. Christ asks for entire 
consecration to Him of all that we are and have. He wants our whole hearts, or 
none at all, and our time, our talents, and our entire possessions said at His feet, 
placed at His disposal. The Apostle Paul tells us, " Ye are not your own, ye are bought 
7vith a price." Not Paul only, but every Christian should be able to say, " For me to 
live is Christ ! " 

Livingstone, in Africa, said, " / -clhH place no value on anything I have or may 
possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If anything will advance tlie interests 
ofthatkingdotn, it shall he given aiaay or kept only, as, by giving or keeping it, I shall most 
promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time and in eternity ; tnay grace 
be given me to adhere to this." 

If when we read Christ's command and promise, " Go . . . Lo, I am with you 
always," we could say with Livingstone, " // is the word of a Gentle7nan of the most 
sacred and strictest honour, and there's an end on't," surely every service would become 
a joy, and we could add with that veteran missionary, " / never made a sacrifice. Can 
that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a part of a great debt owing to our 
God, which we can ?iever repay ? Is that a sacrifice which brings its o'wn blest reiuard in 
healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and' a bright hope of a 
glorious destiny hereafter 1 Away with the ivord in such a view, and with such a 
thought! Jt is emphatically no sacrifice, say rather 11 is a privilege." 





MASK OF A DEVIL-DANCER, OR PROFESSIONAL EXORCIST. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 




The Medical Mission Agency. 

i|T is our earnest desire to see a General Medical Mission established in 
North Ceylon, also a Medical Mission for Women, the two working in 
harmony, and the one being the complement of the other. 

Are Medical Missions needed as an evangeiizi/?g agency in the foreign 
field? We would like to give, in answer to this question, a few extracts from 
Dr. Lowe's able book on Medical Missions : — 

"The Gospel means 'glad tidings,' and preaching the Gospel means the setting 
forth of the best of all glad tidings — the love of God to man. The heathen, as a rule, 
can best be taught, as we teach little children in our schools, by object lessons. The 
Gospel ought, therefore, to be preached to them alike by the living voice and by the 
unmistakable argument of loving deeds. Like the Apostle Paul, the true missionary, 
the workman that needeth not to be ashamed, must be able to say, ' By word and 
deed I have fully preached unto the Gentiles the Gospel of Christ.' 



I 56 Tlie Argument for Medical Missions. 

" To the heathen abroad as well as to the godless at home the most convincing proof 
of the reality and power of the Divine love is that it begets love for man. ' Faith, 
Hope, Love, these three, but the greatest of these is Love,' love to God begetting 
love for man; and what is the aim and object of true Christian love? It is the 
welfare of my brother, the welfare of his body, the welfare of his soul, his welfare for 
time, his welfare for eternity. Holding forth the Word of Life, both by the living 
voice and by a practical manifestation of the spirit of the Gospel, is therefore the true 
meaning of ' Preaching the Gospel.' It implies something more than the mere 
proclamation of the Gospel message ; it implies that, as He who is the sum and 
substance of the Gospel sympathized with suffering humanity, fed the hungry, healed 
the sick, and went about continually doing good, thus ever manifesting the spirit of 
His own religion, and teaching by His ' gracious words,' and by His loving deeds, 
its principles, so His ambassadors must ' preach the Gospel,' not by word only, but 
likewise by a loving, benevolent, Christ-like ministry performed in Christ's name and 
for His sake. 

" The evangelization of the world is Christ's own work, and those who, as His 
instruments, are called to engage in it, are commissioned to represent Christ, to 
represent Him in His tender pity for the lost, in His loving sympathy for the afflicted, 
in His care for the sick and His compassion for the suffering. AVe turn, therefore, 
to Christ's ministry on earth for the interpretation of His own commission, ' Go ye 
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.' 

" In reading the New Testament one cannot fail to be struck with the fact that our 
Lord's personal ministry on earth as well as that of His Apostles was pre-eminently 
that of the medical missionary. In the last three verses of the fourth chapter of St. 
Matthew's Gospel we read : ' And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their 
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sick- 
ness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout 
all Syria : and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers 
diseases and torments, and those which were lunatic, and tiiose that had the palsy ; 
and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from 
Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Jiidea, and from beyond 
Jordan.' 

" Our Lord was just then entering upon His public ministry. He knew man's heart, 
the way to gain access to it, its prejudices, and the many obstacles in the way of the 
people receiving His teaching ; and knowing all this, such were the means He em- 
ployed to reveal His character and claims, to remove prejudice, and to draw men 
nearer to Himself. By the exercise of His healing power He gathered around Him a 



Christ's Miracles of Healing. 157 

great congregation, with hearts overflowing with gratitude, and thus the searching 
truths of ' The Sermon on the Mount ' fell as living seed on a prepared soil. When 
we inquire into our Lord's recorded miracles, we find that no feztier than two-thirds 
ivere miracles of healing. . . . These miraculous works of healing were unanswer- 
able proofs that He was what He claimed to be, the Son of God ; but they 
were more, they were living manifestations of the spirit of His own religion ; they 
spoke a language intelligible to every human conscience; they revealed His tender 
compassion, His loving sympathy, His incomprehensible love, and in this light His 
own disciples regarded them as the fulfilment of the word of Esaias, ' Himself took 
our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.' 

" As the Divine Author and Founder of Christianity, the record of our Lord's 
personal ministry must ever be to us deeply suggestive and instructive. Every feature 
of that ministry claims our devout attention. His mode of commending the truth in 
so far as it was supernatural, we cannot imitate, but in so far as the outcome of His 
"mighty works ' was meant to be a manifestation of the spirit of the Gospel (as much 
needed now as then) ' He hath left us an example that we should follow in His 
steps.' 

" As our authority for the employment of this agency we have not only our Lord's 
example, but likewise His direct command. What He did Himself He commissioned 
His Apostles and the first teachers of Christianity to do likewise : ' And into whatso- 
ever city ye enter . . . heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them. The 
Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.' ... It may be said, however, that it was 
by the forth-putting of His own Divine power that Christ did these ' mighty works,' 
which spread His fame throughout all Syria, and that it was in virtue of their 
miraculous endowments (now no longer available) that His disciples made the deaf to 
hear, the blind to see, and the lame to walk, and that, therefore, their method cannot 
now be a model for our imitation. Such an inference would be legitimate were these 
miracles intended merely as attestations to the Divinity of Christ, and as proofs of 
the Divine origin of the Gospel which the disciples were commissioned to proclaim ; 
but, as we have already seen, they were more than this — they were a practical mani- 
festation of the compassionate spirit of Christ's religion ; they spoke in a language 
that could not be misunderstood, of Him who came, ' Not to destroy men's lives, but 
to save them.' And surely, in so far as this was the Divine intention, these miracles 
of healing are recorded for our instruction, teaching us that, in our missionary enter- 
prises, the consecration of the healing art to the service of the Gospel is not only in 
accordance with the Divine method, but forms a part of the Divine intention. 

" The ' gift of tongues,' which enabled these first heralds of the Cross to proclaim to 




158 



A Medical Mission Wanted. 



men of all nations ' the wonderful works of God,' is 
not now miraculous!)' bestowed, neither is the ' gift of 
healing ; ' but in the one case as in the other, the 
qualification which the ' gift ' conveyed must be 
patiently and laboriously acquired. ' He sent them 
to preach the Kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.' 
" The Church recognizes the Divine commission to 
' preach the Gospel to every creature ' as still binding 
upon her, notwithstanding the withdrawal of the ' gift 
of tongues.' Shall the command of our Lord in 
reference to ' healing the sick,' which formed so 
prominent a feature of His own earthly ministry and 
that of His Apostles, be ignored on the ground that 
miraculous ' gifts of healing ' are now withheld ? 
Nay, rather, the withdrawal of those gifts renders ft 
all the more imperative that we should cultivate and consecrate, with the utmost 
energy and devotion, not only the science of philology, but likewise that of medicine, 
that so we may fulfil our Lord's commission in all its breadth and fulness, and 
following His example, preach the Gospel ' by word and deed.' " 



INlissionaries of three societies have been at work in the northern province of Ceylon 
for over seventy years. At the present time there are less than 3000 Christian com- 
municants in the province. If ike remaining 313,000 are to be won to Christ in this 
generation, and surely nothing less than this should be our aim and effort, it seems very 
desirable that an additional agency, and especially the agency of Medical Missions, 
should be introduced. As the large numbers of heathen doctors are the strongest allies 
of the heathen priests in Jaffna, so a Medical Mission in Jaffna would be the strongest 
ally of all the Christian agencies now at work. How can Jaffna become largely 
Christian so long as the majority of the people in times of sickness resort to heathen 
doctors, and make vows and offerings to heathen gods? Heathenism is still so gross 
and rampant in North Ceylon, that mission agencies can hardly count the battle there 
to be much more than begun. 

We need Medical Missionaries who will go to the people in their times of sorrow and 
anxiety, and by giving them actual relief, win their gratitude and affection, and by 
showing them the very spirit of Christ, gain the assent of their hearts to Him. The 
Medical Missionary comes nearer to the people in loving ministry than the average 
missionary who has no medical knowledse. In the two months of December, 1888, 



Value of a Missioti Hospital. 



159 



and January, 1889,, about 2000 people died in Jaffna from an epidemic of fever, 
among whom very few had received proper treatment. When smallpox, cholera, or 
epidemics of malignant fever break out from time to time, the people die by 
thousands. Forty native communicants died in Jaffna last year. To have saved the 
lives of some of these trained and experienced workers would have been of incalculable 
value to the cause. Of course, as a Christian man, the Medical Missionary will strive 
to improve every opportunity of doing personal work among his patients in the hospital 
and dispensary, and at their own homes. 

His Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon, K.C.B., when visiting Jaffna, strongly urged that 
a medical work similar to that done formerly by Dr. Green should be resumed, and 
followed up his suggestion by heading the list with a subscription of Rs. 1000 for this 
object. W. C. Twynam, Esq., for something like thirty years Government Agent in 
Ceylon, and an able, far-sighted, and public-spirited man, has also strongly urged that 
a Medical Mission should be established. The work the Medical- Missionary is to 
conduct will be under the direction of a Board composed of missionaries and native 
Christians of the Church of England, Wesleyan, and American Missions, the three 
missionary societies carrying on work in Jaffna. This Board of Directors are also the 
Directors of the Jaffna College. 

John Henry Marston, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., formerly 
connected with the Mildmay Mission in London, has been 
appointed by the Board of Directors to take charge of the 
.General Medical Mission in North Ceylon, and he has gone 
out with his wife to undertake this work. 

We would earnestly commend Dr. and Mrs. Marston to 
the affectionate and prayerful remembrance of all who love 
the Master and desire to see His Kingdom come in Ceylon. 
Dr. Marston is the only Missionary Physician in the 
Northern Province among 316,000 people, and, with the 
exception of the civil surgeon, the only fully qualified 
medical man, we believe, in the province. 

A Medical Mission Hospital is the strategic point in the 
evangelistic ivork of a Medical Mission. It is from the 
Mission Hospital thai the majority of converts are found to 
come, in the experience of the most successful Medical 
Missions on record. It is in the Mission Hospital that the 
patient comes to know the missionary and his assistants, to 
see exemplified in their daily lives the spirit and power of 




i6o 



Cost of a Bed. 



the Gospel. It is there- that he learns, 
little by little, to believe the truth which 
he hears read and sung and spoken 
from day to day, and to reveal his 
doubts and difficulties, and have them 
removed. 

On this point, Dr. Lowe says in his 
book on Medical Missions : " It is in 
the hospital that the most satisfactory 
and successful medical and surgical 
work will be accomplished — work 
which will produce the deepest impres- 
sions, and direct public attention most 
favourably to the higher objects of the 
mission. It is here, too, that the 
Medical Missionary will be able most 
successfully to accomplish evangelistic 
work— here that he may expect to 
gather the most precious and enduring 
fruit. While dispensary work and 
occasionally medico-evangelistic tours 
among the surrounding towns and 
villages are important features of 

Medical Mission work, still the hospital will be the field in which the richest harvest 
will be reaped, and therefore the establishment of a hospital should from the first be 
kept in view, and accomplished at the earliest opportunity." Sums suificient for the 
erection of a Medical Mission Hospital in Jaffna have been given or promised. 

One hundred pounds ivill endoiv a bed in the hospital (^providing permanently for a 
part of the expense of its tip-keep)* ; ;£$o toill provide the half, and f^2c^ the quarter 0/ 
the enio7vment of a bed ; fj\o will provide a share in a bed. 

Are there not some friends in Great Britain and America who could each con- 
tribute one of the above-named sums, without diminishing their ordinary subscriptions 
to other Christian objects, and thus -have a real part in this much-needed Christ-like 
medical work in Ceylon ? 

* This will provide for the patients the shelter and ordinary comforts of the hospital, and the 
attendance of the missionary ]3hysician, free of charge, leaving them to meet the cost of medicine, 
food, and incidentals, which expenses they would have had to bear had they remained in tlieir 
own homes. 




DR. J. H. MARSTON. 




Hints to Benefactors . 



I6l 



Three kind friends have of late greatly en- 
couraged us by donations of ;^ioo each. One of 
these, J. Campbell White, Esq., who gave ^xoo 
at the beginning of our effort for a scholarship in 
the Jaffna College, has kindly given ;^, loo for the 
General Medical Mission, saying that, as he had 
helped us to secure the first half oi the fund which 
we were seeking, he would give us a similar help 
towards the last half. Are there not others among 
the friends who have helped us in securing the 
first half of the fund who will follow his example, 
and give a second dotiation towards the last half of 
the fund ? 

It would add to the interest of the effort if the 
donors were to associate with their gifts their name, 
or the name of some one whom they have honoured 
and loved^ and if these names were engraved on 
brass tablets, which would be permanently con- 
nected with the beds thus endowed, this would 
give a personality to the gift in the eyes of the 
people of Jaffna, and would lead them to feel that 
Christians in distant lands had loved them, and made sacrifices on their behalf, and 
were entitled to their gratitude in return. 

We will most gladly pledge ^loo in memory of our beloved parents. Cannot 
others be found who will do the same in remembrance of those dear to them, and 
for the sake of a work which has as its great object to promote the progress of the 
Redeemer's kingdom ? The members of some family circles, and perhaps of some 
congregations. Sabbath-schools, Bible-classes^ Y.M.C.A.'s, Y.W.C.A.'s, &c., might 
unite their gifts to present such a tribute to the memory of a parent, a pastor, a 
teacher, a president, or a friend, who has gone to be with Jesus. Would it be a less 
acceptable monument than a memorial window or a costly tomb ? A short time ago, 
in response to our appeal, the students of the Old Hall, Wellington, pledged not 
merely a donation of ;^ioo, but;^ioo annually to support a medical lady under the 
I. F.N. S. and I. Society as their own missionary in Benares. Might not the example of 
liberality set by the students in this school be followed by many others ? Sums 
promised for beds might be paid in instalments during five years if the givers or 
collectors so desired. 



TWO DEVIL-DANCERS. 



l62 



A Medical 3Iission for Women. 



AVe earnestly hope that there may be many who will thus provide a thank-offering 
to God, a permanent aid to the Medical Mission in Ceylon, and a grateful memorial 
of friends whose work on earth is finished. Surely God will plead the cause of the 
oppressed, and there are thousands upon thousands in North Ceylon oppressed by 
in and superstition, and held down by heathen priests and doctors. Surely the 
cause which seeks to deliver their bodies from needless suffering, and their minds 
and hearts from the powers of darkness and evil, must be the cause of humanity and 
of Christ. 

Feeling the great and pressing need of a Medical Mission for 
Women in North Ceylon, and believing that it was God's will 
that such a work should be begun, since He had led kind friends, 
entirely unasked by us, to promise the salary of a lady doctor, and 
other friends to promise and give additional sums, we were led to 
present the matter to the Committee of the I.F.N.S. and I. 
Society. We offered to transfer to that Society all pledges and 
sums already given for the object, and to do all in our power as 
occasion arose to secure for them the remainder of the amount 
needed to organize and sustain such a work, viz. ;^3ooo for the 
erection of a Medical Mission-house and a Women's and 
Children's Hospital, and ;^450 in annual subscriptions toward 
the up-keep of the hospital and dispensary, and the support of 
the European and native workers, provided the Society would 
inaugurate the work as their own, and take it under their entire 
control. 

To our great joy, on the 19th of last June, the Committee of 
the I.F.N.S. and [. Society, in the most cordial manner, acceded 
to our request that they should establish a medical work for 
women in North Ceylon, having in contemplation a hospital for 
women and children, a mission-house, two fully qualified lady moiuer am 

doctors, with a staff of native assistants, the work to be undertaken 
at the earliest date possible. We thank God for this token of 
His favour, and take new courage to go on with the effort. This Medical Mission for 
Women and also the General Medical Mission will both be located in North Ceylon 
Each of these missions will have its separate and distinct work, a work which it only 
can do, and both, we trust, will co-operate to the fullest extent with every other agencv 
already employed in the great work of evangelizing the people and bringing them to 
the knowledge and service of Christ. These two Medical Missions, working side by 





A Professor s Plea. 



163 



low CASTE WOMEN, SUCH AS ARE NOW COM- 
MONLY EMPLOYED AS NURSES TO THE SICK. 



side and in fullest harmony, will each strengthen 
the work, of the other. According to God's arith- 
metic, two are worth not merely twice as many as 
one, but ten times as many. " How should one 
chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to 
flight?" (Deut. xxxii. 30.) 

AVe wish to quote here the words of Professor 
Miller, in an address at one of the annual meetings 
of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. 
He said : — 

"When we come before you with Scripture 
warrant on our side — with the personal example of 
our Lord and His Apostles not only beckoning 
us on, but reproving us for not having come — 
with the successful experience of medical missions, 
as far as they have yet been tried, speaking strongly 
in- our favour, and with the united and cordial 
approval of every missionary with whom we have 
ever come in contact ; when missionaries all tell 
us that they find the medical element so essential to the success of their work that 
they are compelled sometimes to practise it themselves ; when labourers from all 
quarters of the mission-field, men gallantly bearing the burden and heat of the 
day, are calling to us anxiously for medical colleagues, not on account of their own 
health, but to assist them in their great work of reaching the hearts of men whose 
souls they seek to save ; and when, had we but the means and men, we might now 
plant, not one or two or three, but many Medical Missions in the very heart and 
strongholds of heathenism, where they would be gladly welcomed, and by-and-by 
supported to a considerable extent by the very heathen themselves ; with such 
claims as these, surely it is neither unbecoming nor unwarrantable that we ask 
earnestly and importunately for your sympathy and aid. And bear with me, if I 
remind you that you have an important duty to discharge towards the medical 
profession, that you owe it a debt. Is there any one here who does not feel and 
acknowledge that debt ? Has no father, or brother, or sister, or husband, or wife, 
or child, been saved to you, under God's providence, by the skill and care of 
the physician ? At a time when all seemed dark and hopeless, and you dared 
not look into the fature, at a time when the blackness of despair had settled 
down, and well-nigh shut out heaven from your sight and prayer from your lips, at 



i64 A Double Debt and Double Duty. 

a time when you would gladl}' have given all the earthly treasure you possessed, 
or ever might possess, in barter for the life which seemed so fast and hopelessly 
ebbing away, has not the physician then seemed to you as a ministering angel 
sent to comfort you? Have you not then clung to him as your best earthly friend, 
your only earthly hope and stay ? And when success attended his efforts in battling 
with disease and death, when life, and hope, and health came smiling back, have you 
not wet his hand with your tears of gratitude, and sent him away laden with your 
blessing and your prayers ? Or was it your own life that was quivering in the balance 
at a time, perhaps, when a downward turn would have hazarded a double death, but 
when the upward cast, still due, apparently, to the hand of the physician, bade you 
live again for time and for eternity ? Ah, then surely the argument we now venture to 
use will come home with a double force. Each one who has felt this, or aught like 
this, will surely acknowledge a large and growing debt of obligation. Let those debts 
be all accumulated into one vast whole, not due, or at least not to be rendered to the 
individual man, but to the God-like profession which they represent. The oppor- 
tunity is given you to discharge in some measure that debt now. 

" Honours, in old times, were freely accorded to individual practitioners of renown; 
medals were struck in their honour, bearing the legend ' ob cives servatos ' (on account 
of citizens preserved). We seek no such personal gifts, but we ask you to honour 
the profession by helping it to honour and adorn itself, by helping it to write on the 
bells of the horses ' Holiness unto the Lord,' by helping it to be instrumental in saving 
the souls as well as the bodies of men, by helping it to place in its coronet new jewels 
of greatest value and of brightest lustre, by helping it to twine in its garland a new 
wreath from the ever-green and ever-growing plant of renown. And let me add that, 
in thus honouring the profession, you will honour also that profession's Head. Medi- 
cine has been at no time without her gods. The early Greeks owned Apollo ; after 
him came ^sculapius ; and gods and demigods followed in abundance. But the 
power of advancing civilization struck away those unsightly capitals from the other- 
wise goodly column ; not to leave it mutilated and bare, but to make way for the true 
headstone, to exalt and acknowledge the great Physician, Jehovah Rophi, the Lord the 
healer — no mythical personage, but He who in very deed dwelt with men upon the 
earth, who went about continually doing good, and who has promised to be with 
His faithful followers alway, even unto the end of the world. 

" Such is the double debt and double duty which we ask you now in part, at least, 
to discharge. But do not mistake the nature of the claim which we make. We 
seek your pecuniary aid to carry on this great and noble enterprise so beneficent to 
men, so glorifying to God ; but we do not want your money only. ' Your money or 



A Start/inz Demand. 



i6s 



your life' is the startling demand of the highwayman; ours is more startling still — 
' Your money and your life.' Of some select, gifted, and gallant few^ we seek their 
lives, wholly devoted to the death if need be, in the service of their great Master. 
But of all, we seek their life in one sensCj in the sense of claiming that on which true 
life depends, that whereby spiritual life is fed and maintained, without which it dies, 
prayer — intercession at the Throne of Grace ! . . . And if it be true that the deadly 
conflict is now at hand between truth and error, between the powers of light and the 
powers of darkness, if the time is now near when we shall be involved as combatants 
for very life in that eventful struggle, how can we look for Heaven's aid, how dare we 
ask it, unless we be on Heaven's side, and doing the will of Him who sits almighty 
there ? How can we, in the shock of the coming battle, and in the turmoil of the 
approaching Iray, be otherwise than helpless and overborne, unless, as faithful soldiers of 
the Cross, we be found mustered around and fighting under the banner of the Captain 
of the hosts of the Lord, following where that banner leads, losing neither sight nor hold 
of it — the banner of Him, whose latest command it was, whose very watchword of 
the fight is, ' Go ye unto all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' 

" ' And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God, and to heal the sick . . . 
And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the Gospel and healing 
everywhere.'" (Luke ix. 2-6.) 



A company of 
devil-dancers. 





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- ■''£s^SiwF "S^S^-i-fc. "t^.K ^wi^^^i^^^H 




al^K'^ 'if'" T "v" I jwi^ Sr"^ -^'^i^B 




^___r^^'' "i" ^ ' * ^^^ "l^^^^r "^l^ iC^^^H 








^^n^^^UI 



166 




WHA'S MY NEIBOR? 
Bv GEORGli Macdonald, LL.D. 

DooN frae Jerus'lem a travellei tiiik The laigh road to Jericlio ; 
It liad an ill name an' mony a criiik, It was lang an' unco how. 

Oot cam' llie robbers an' fell on the man, An' knockit him oi. 

the heid ; 
Took a' whauron they could lay their han', And left him nakit 

for deid. 

By cam' a minister o' the kirk : " A sair mishanter ! " he cried ; 

" Wha kens whaur the villains may lurk ? Ts haud to the ither side.' 

By cam' an elder o' the kirk ; Like a young horse he shied ; 

" Fie ! there's a bonny mornin's wark ! " An' he spang't to the ither side. 

By cam' ane gaed to the wrang kirk, Donee he trotted alang; 

" Puir body ! " he cried, an' \vi' a yerk, Afif o' his cuddy he sprang ; 

He rai\ to the body an' turn'd it ower, "There's life i' the man ! " he cried ; 
He wasna ane to stan' an' glower, An' haud to the ither side. 

He docior'd his wounds an' heised him on To the back of the beasty douce; 
An' held him there, till, a weary man. He l.ingt at the half-way house. 

He len'd him a' nicht, an' at dawn o' day, " I.an'lord " (lie says) " lalna him lack; 
There's aiichteenpence ; ony niair ootlay I'll sattle as ! come l)ack." 

Sae nae niair, neibors— say nae sic word, \Vi' hert ave arguin' an' chill : 
No, '■ VVhae's the neibor to me, O Lord ? " But, " Wha am I neibor lill ? " 




APPENDIX. 

HE story of Maria Pea body, from 

the pen of some unknown friend, 

appeared in Life and Light. It is 

true in all its details, and we append 

it here in the hope that it may encourage those 

who cannot go to the foreign field in person to 

give in aid of the work. Ought not every man 

and every woman, who can do so, to support a 

representative as tlieir personal substitute among 

the heathen ? 

Mrs. Grattan Guinness has said, " We have 

no fires of martyrdom noio to test our fidelity to 

Jesus Christ ; but we are not left without a test. God is testing us all continually as to 

the measure of our FAITH, love, and devotedness to His Son by the presence of que 

THOUSAND MILLIONS OF HEATHEN IN THE WORLD. Jt is a tronendous test ; SO real, so 

practical ! Gifts that cost us no personal self-denial are no proof of devotedness." 
THE S TORY OF MA.RIA PEABODY. 

"Of a truth I say unto you, that this . . . hath cast in more than they all ; for all these have of 
their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God ; but she of her penury hath cast in all . . . that she 
had." — St. Luke xxi. 3, 4. 

In the beautiful island of Ceylon, many years ago, the native Christians, who had 
long worshipped in bungalows and old Dutch chapels, decided that they must have 
a church built for themselves. Enthusiastic giver-; were each eager to forward the 
new enterprise. But to the amazenieot of all, Maria Peabody, a lone orphan girl, 
who had been a beneficiary in the girls' schools at Oodooville, came forward and 
offered to give the land upon which to build, which was the best site in her native 
village. 

Not only was it all she owned in this world, but, far more, it was her marriage 
portion, arid in making this gift, in the eyes of every native, she renounced all hopes 



Noble Self denial, 1(59 

of being married. As this alternative in the East was regarded as an awful step, 
many thought her beside herself, and tried to dissuade her from such an act of 
renunciation. "No," said Maria; "I have given it to Jesus, and as He has 
accepted it, you must.'' And so to-day the first Christian church in Ceylon (the first 
chapel built by natives) stands upon land given by a poor orphan girl. 

The deed was noised abroad, and came to the knowledge of a young theological 
student, who was also a beneficiary of the mission, and it touched his heart. Neither 
could he rest, until he had sought and won the rare and noble maiden who was 
willing to give up so much in her Master's cause.* 

Some one in the United States had been for years contributing twenty dollars 
annually for the support of this young Hindu girl, but the donor was unknown. The 
Rev. Dr. Poor, a missionary in Ceylon, visiting America about that time, longed to 
ascertain who was the faithful sower, and report the wonderful harvest. Finding 
himself in Hanover, N.H., preaching to the students at Dartmouth College, he 
happened in conversation to hear some one speak of Mrs. Peabody, and repeated, 
" Feabody ; what Peabody?" ''Mrs. Maria Peabody, who resides here — the widow 
of a former pro'essor," was the answer. "Oh ! I must see her before 1 leave," said 
the earnest man, about to continue his journey. 1 he first words after an introduction 
at her house, were : " I have come to bring you a glad report ; for I cannot but think 
that it is to you we in Ceylon, owe the opportunity of educating one who has proved 
as lovely and consistent a native convert as we have ever had. She is exceptionally 
interesting, devotedly pious, and bears your name." 

" Alas ! " said the lady, " although the girl bears my name, I wish I could claim the 
honour of educating her ; it belongs not to me, but to Louisa Osborne, my poor 
coloured cook. Some years ago in Salem, Mass., she carne to me after an evening 
meeting, saying: ' I have just heard that if anybody would give twenty dollars a vear, 
they could support and educate a child in Ceylon, and I have decided to do it. They 
say that along with the money I can send a name ; and I have come, mistress, to ask 
you if you would object to my sending yours.' " At that time," continued the lady, 
"a servant's wages ranged from a dollar to a dollar and a half a week, yet my cook 
had for a long time been contributing half a dollar each month at the monthly concert 
for foreign missions. There were those who expostulated with her for giving away so 
much for one in her circumstances, as a time might come when she could not earn. 
'I have thought it all over,' she would reply, 'and concluded I would rather give 
what I can while I am earning, and then if I lose my health and cannot work, why, 
there is the poor-house, and I can go there. You see they have no poor-house in 
heathen lands, for it is only Christians who care for the poor.' " In telling this story. 
Dr. Poor used to pause at this point, and exclaim : " To the poor-house ! Do you 

* This young man. after completing his theological sludies, was stationed, with liis wife, in a district 
called Alavertty. At that time nearly all the people in that district were idolaters. Now in that 
district there is a church with forty members, an inquirer's class, a large Sabbath school, and five or 
six village day-schools with several hundreds of children in attendance, to whom the Bible lessons are 
regularly taught. This change, through God's blessing, has largely resulted from the efforts of these 
two consecrated Christians. 



1 70 " I guess it was my Lord Jesus.^' 

believe God would ever let that good woman die in the poor-house? Never!" We 
shall see. 

The missionary learned that the last known of Louisa Osborne was that she was 
lesiding in Lowell, Mass. In due time his duties called him to that city. At the 
close of an evening service before a crowded house, he related among missionary 
incidents, as a crowning triumph, the story of Louisa Oshjrne and Maria Pcabody. 
The disinterested devotion, sell-sacrifice, and implicit faith and zeal of the Christian 
giver in favoured America has been developed, matured, and well-nigh eclipsed, by 
her faithful protegee in far-off benighted 'ndia His heart glowing with zeal, and 
deeply stirred by the fresh retrospect of the triumphs of the Gospel over hea- 
tncnism, he exclaimed, "If there is any one present who knows anything of that 
good woman, Louisa Osborne, and will lead me to her, I shall be greatly obliged." 
The benediction pronounced and the crowd dispersing, Dr. Poor passed down one 
of the aisles, chatting with the pastor, when he espied i-. quiet little figure apparently 
waiting for him. Could it be her? Yes, it was a coloured woman, and it must be 
Louisa Osborne. With quickened steps he reached her, exclaiming in tones of 
suppressed emotion, "I believft this is my sister in Christ, Louisa Osborne V 
" That is my name " was the cahn reply. " Well, God bless you, Louisa ; you have 
heard my report, and know all ; but belore we part, probably never to meet again in 
this world, I want you to answer me one question. What made you do it?" With 
downcast eyes, and in a low and trembling voice, she replied, " Well, I do not 
know, but I guess it was my Lord Jesus." 

They parted only to meet in the streets of the JVew Jerusalem ; for the missionary 
returned to his adopted home, where, ere long, the loving hands of his faithful 
native brethren bore him to his honoured grave. The humble handmaiden of the 
Lord laboured meekly on a while, and is ending her failing da\s, not in a poorhouse, 
verily, but. through the eflorts of those who knew her best, in a pleasant, comlortable 
Old Ladies' Home. " Him that honoureth Me, I will honour." 

The seal of Calvin, one of the great ajiostles of the Reformation, represents a 
hand holding a burning heart, illustrative of his life-principle: "I give thee all; I 
keep back nothing for myself." Centurie-; afterward, two humble followers of the 
Master caught a kindred inspiration from the same divine source. Shall we, to whom 
so much of privilege and bounty is granted, lay down this marvellous story of self- 
renunciation, and let its lesson be lost on our own lives? 

" Unto whomsoevermuch is given, of him shall be much required." (Luke xii. 48.) 



TE.XJS T EES 

OF 

tra.££n.a. College Ftinds 

IN THE 

W. H. Wilcox, D. D., President. 

N. G. Clark, D. D., Secretary. 

C. H. Warner, Treasurer. 
T. H. Russell, C. T. Russell, Jr., 

S. D. Smith, A. H. Hardy. 

Remittances for the College or Medical Mission may be sent to C. H. Warner, 
Treasurer, Bank of Commerce, Boston, Mass. 



Forri] of Beqiiest. 

/ iequeath to the Jaffna College* Ceylon, the sum of 

'$ ,free of duty, to be paid out of that part 

of my personal Estate which hy law may be effectually, given for the 
benefit of the said JAFFNA COLLEGE,* and for which sum the receipt 
of the Treasurer for the time being shall be a sufficient discharge. 

[Three Witnesses.] 

*If it is desired that the Legacy be applied toward the General Medical Mission in 
j:onnection -with the Jaffna College, these words should be used in place of "Jaffna College." 



THE JAFFNA COLLEGE, 

AND 

GENERAL MEDICAL MISSION IN NORTH CEYLON. 



IReferees in (Breat JSrltatJt. 



The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Abekdeen. 

The Rt. Hon. the Lord Kinnaird. 

The Rt. Hon. the Lord Polwarth. 

Edward Crosslev, Esq., M.P. 

Rev. H. Grattan Guinness, F.R.G.S. 

J. E. Mathieson, Esq. 

J. L. Maxwell, Esq., M. D. 

W. T. Paton Esq. 



Rev. Nevill .SherBROoke. 

Rev. Frank White 

J. Campbell White, Esq. 

George Williams, Esq. 

The Dowager Countess Cairns. 

Lady Victoria Buxton. 

Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. 

Mrs. Stephen Menzies. 



lEbinburgb HiiEtliarg domtnittee. 



Chairman— •i\x William Muir, K.C S.L, LL.LV, D C.L. 
Honorary Sccrctaiy and Treasurer — George C. Maclean, Esq., 4, Dean Park Crescenl, Edinburgh, 



Rev. Armstrong Black. 

Rev. Henry Duncan. 

Rev. Charles R. Teape, Ph.D. 

Rev Andrew Thomson, D D. 

Rev. Alexander Whyte, D.D. 

Rev. George Wilson. 

Robert Si M.soN, Esq., H.M.B C.S. 

J. Duncan Smith, E q., -S.S.C. 

Major-General F. Nkpean Smith 



Mrs. Duncan. 
Miss Hunter. 
Miss Mackenzie, 
Mrs. Macrae. 
Mrs. Millar. 
Mrs. SiMsoN. 
-Mrs. Smith. 
Mrs. Stuart. 
Mrs. Whitson. 



1f3onorart> Collectors. 

The Misses M. and M. W. Leitch, c/o S. Stanton, Esq., 17, Soiuhainjaon Row, London, W.C. 

Ban hers. 

Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, Tritton, Ransom, Bouverie & Co., i. Pall Mall East, London. 
The Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh. 

auditors. 

Arthur J. Hill, Vellacott & Co., Chartered Accountants, 1, Finsbury Circus, Londmi, E.C. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS © 



' —0 028 359 134 7 

'In the seoiet of Thy fteaence." — Psalm 31: 20. 



The following Verses were written by ELLEN LAKSHIM GOREH, a 
Brahmin Lady of the highest caste. 




IK the secret of TTin presence hov my soul delights to hide! 
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I leam at Jesus' side ! 
Earthly cares can neyer yex me, neither trials lay me low, 
For, when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go. 

When my soul is faint and thirsty, 'neath the shadow of His wing 
There is cool and pleasant shelter and a fresh and crystal spring ; 
And my Sa-vionr rests beside me as we hold commnnion sweet: 
If I tiled I could not utter what He says when thus we meet. 

Only this I know : I tell Him all my donbts and grie& and feus; 
Oh, how patiently He listens, and my drooping soul He cheers I 
Do yon think He ne'er reproves me? What a false friend He 

would be, 
If He never, never told me of the sins which he must see ! 

Do you think that I could love Him half so well, or as I ought, 
If He did not tell me plainly of my sinful deed and thought? 
No, He is so very faithful, and that makes me trust him more. 
For I know Qiat He does love me, though he wounds me very sore. 

Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret of the Lord? 
Go and hide beneath His shadow; this shall then be your reward. 
And whene'er you leave the silence of the special meeting place, 
Tou must mind and bear the image of your Master in your face. 

Tou will surely lose the blessing and the fulness of your joy, 

If you let dark clouds distress you and your inward peace destroy. 

Tou may always be abiding, if you will, at Jesus' side, 

In the secret of His presence you may every moment hide. 



